One Choice
by ItAllComesDownToNow
Summary: At the end of every tunnel there's a light, but if you get lost, you end up in the darkness. Ezra's struggling to choose his own path, and when he meets a very strange girl one day, it makes his decision even harder. He loves his crew like if they were his own family, but when he crosses too many lines to come back, can they save him? Or will he forever be lost in the dark?
1. Chapter 1: Nightmares

**Disclaimer: I do not own star wars rebels, sadly, that right belongs to Disney.**

Third Person P.O.V

_'Okay, so maybe stealing valuable goods from that Imperial ship, while trying to stay 'under the radar' wasn't my best idea...' _Ezra thought to himself as he ran through the crowded streets of Lothal.

Zeb was behind him, pushing a crate of supplies that they'd smuggled from the ship they'd previously robbed. Ezra too, was pushing a crate, but getting it through the streets wasn't the problem, staying unnoticed was.

Ever since completing that job for Lando, the security on Lothal had been tight. But since they'd been running extra low on supplies and fuel, Hera had told them to go on a run, but only with extreme caution. _'So much for that'_, Ezra mused to himself as another shot of blaster fire rang out behind him.

"Karabast!" The lasat behind him swore, "if this keeps up we'll be the sole focus of every civilian on Lothal!" Ezra couldn't help but smile bitterly, "and _whose_ fault is that!?" Even without looking, he could tell that Zeb was glaring at his back.

"Hey! It was _your_ idea to rob that ship! My only mistake was listening to you!" Another shot rang out then, and this one nearly clipped his shoulder, at this rate the bucket heads would actually get a hit on them very soon.

"So what do you suggest we do now!?" Ezra cried over his shoulder, "normally I'd say 'call Hera!' But since we dropped our com's back there, I can't say that!" Suddenly, a shop stationed dangerously close to where Ezra was running, _blew up_. "They're throwing bombs at us!" Ezra cried dubiously and even with the wind howling in his ears, he could still hear Zeb snarl angrily.

"The bucket heads are getting more insane by the day! They could've killed some poor sap back there! And for what? Being at the wrong place at the wrong time? I ought to-" "what? Give them a time out? They're the ones with the deadly blasters!" "And I'm the one with a bo-rifle!" "Yeah, but you'd have to get up in their face to use it! There are too many of them to fight up close Zeb! Also we can't risk them getting a clear look at us! Distance is our friend right now!"

Another angry snarl came from Zeb, more blaster fire came from the storm troopers, and just to make matters worse, a TIE fighter had miraculously appeared and was now trying to shoot at them from the sky. No shots hit them directly, but somewhere on his back Ezra could feel a shot graze his skin.

He hissed in pain, very tempted to turn around and give the bucket heads tailing them a good dose of the Force, but Kanan had strictly prohibited Force use around others, seeing as the less people who knew about it, the better it was for them.

Suddenly, an idea struck Ezra. He smiled a little as he began forming a plan in his mind, for sure it would work. "_Specter 4_, I'm sending the crate I'm carrying your way! Catch it and keep running!" A sound resembling a growl came from behind him as he tossed Zeb his crate. The lasat caught it, but not without asking him some questions first.

"What are ya doing kid!?" "I have a plan, trust me!" "Kinda hard when you don't let me in on what your doing!" As the storm troopers closed in, Ezra realised there was no room to further explain his plan. "Trust me!" Ezra called one last time, before running towards the nearest alley, making sure to conceal himself from all the bystanders, before closing his eyes and calling on the Force. With a little unseen wave of his hand, all the storm troopers who'd been chasing Zeb and him flew back abruptly, and fell down like dominos.

A satisfied smirk on his face, Ezra ran back to Zeb and offered the lasat a small smile. "You little-wait. I thought you weren't supposed-" "no one saw, I hid myself, it's fine! Just...don't tell Kanan, alright!?" Zeb didn't respond for while, before a lazy grin appeared on his face, "don't tell Kanan what?" The lasat mused, and just as Ezra was about to say something back, the TIE fighter re-started shooting at them.

"Karabast, that thing's gaining on us, and I don't think you can Force it away, can you?" "Not out in the open!" Ezra cried, "the Imperials on the ship will see me and know I'm Force-sensitive."

A few more moments passed, and both of them managed to avoid being shot, but their luck wasn't going to hold up long. A look of cunning suddenly crossed the lasat's face, and Ezra could only assume that he'd come up with a plan of his own to rid them of the TIE.

"Why are you smiling? We're being shot at!" Zeb's grin got bigger, and the next thing Ezra knew, both crates were in his hands and Zeb was standing_ on top_ of them.

"Your crazy!" Ezra screamed to his friend, who only scowled in return. "Trust me kid, this is gonna work-" "what's gonna work? You haven't even told me what your-" "exactly, how do you like it?" Ezra bit back whatever retort he was gonna say next, before scrunching up his face in annoyance.

"Okay fine, I trust you!" Zeb grinned again, before holding out his hand. "I need your slingshot." For a moment Ezra was confused, until he quickly connected the dots, then a grin matching Zeb's broke out onto his face as well.

"Here!" He threw the slingshot to his friend, "you have one shot! They're probably reloading their cannons! Hurry!" And he did, Zeb wasted no time in raising Ezra's slingshot to his eye and firing a perfectly aimed shot. His shot hit one of the two TIE fighter engines, and before the pilot and co-pilot of the plane could react, they were falling down from the sky at a fatal speed. The TIE landed somewhere beyond the horizon, but Ezra could hardly care anymore, they'd done it, they'd managed to evade the Empire once more.

"Yeah!" Zeb cried, sharing in his friend's glee as well. "We did it kid!" Ezra smiled at the lasat, "yeah. We did," and for good measure, he added, "so can you please get off the crates now? They're heavy enough to push without you standing on them."

With a grimace, Zeb hopped off the crates, and they were both back off in the direction of _the Ghost_. Trying to evade the TIE fighter had made them go a bit off course, mostly because they'd had to get away from the Lothal marketplace and prying eyes, but now that they were back in the right direction, it wasn't too long before they could clearly see the outline of their ship's hangar.

"Finally!" Zeb cried happily, and Ezra couldn't help but to share in his happiness. As they neared the ship more, they both saw a person waiting for them on the hangar steps. Sabine, a worried expression on her face, waited at the hangar door for them. He expression relaxed considerably upon seeing them, but not completely, she was going to be pissed once they told her about their...little mishap.

Not because she was mad they'd ticked off security, but because she hadn't been there to enjoy it herself. That was actually one of the many reasons Ezra loved Sabine, she always wanted to be a part of everything.

"What the hell happened!? Hera said it was supposed to be an easy op! Why do you guys have to _overcomplicate_ everything!?" Ezra wanted to answer her badly, he really did, but already he could see more TIE fighters flying towards them in the distance, meaning that they had to leave now.

Helping Zeb load the crates aboard the ship, Ezra closed the hangar door with a quick wave of his hand.

"We'll explain everything later," Zeb said. "But right now, we've overstayed our welcome on Lothal, tell Hera to go _now_." Sabine, despite all her curiosity, wasted no time in heading for the cockpit to tell Hera that the party had to leave the planet. 'Them' being the party, seeing as there was always paparazzi wherever they went...most of it bad though.

Ezra finished closing the hangar door, and watched through the small window as the ship left Lothal's atmosphere. Pretty soon, the desert planet was gone, and all there was left around him were thousands of stars.

* * *

><p>"Okay, so let me get this straight, you guys managed to turn a simple food run...into war?" Sabine said after they'd finished re-telling the story of their mishap back on Lothal. "Basically," Zeb responded. "I swear! Because of you two, one day I am going to end up in a white rubber padded room, scrunched up in a fetal position on the floor!" Throwing her arms up in the air, she almost looked mad, <em>almost<em>, if not for the traces of a grin at the corner's of her mouth.

"The worst part is that I didn't come because I thought it was gonna be _boring_. God, shows how clueless and naïve I was." Ezra flashed her a smile, "maybe next time then you should come." She sent him a look, one that seemed to say _'really_?' "What?" He asked innocently, "nothing kid. Absolutely nothing, besides, maybe I will come with you next time. If there's always this much action getting the groceries, hell yeah. I'll come, anyway, the warden wants to see you."

Uh oh, the warden aka Kanan_. 'Please tell me he's not gonna have another go at me! And please let it not be another lesson on the basic safety of using a lightsaber!' _Ezra thought to himself as his smile dropped, "ooh...someone's in trouble...or just in need of more teachings in the ways of 'the Force', either way, good luck kid." Zeb laughed, a huge grin covered his face. Ezra sent him a glare as he left the room, heading for the cockpit where Kanan would most likely be, talking with Hera.

He passed Chopper on the way, who took one look at him, before breaking out into a series of what he guessed were angry beeps. Sticking his tongue out at him, Ezra ignored Chopper's aggravated beeping. He knocked on the cockpit door once, before it slid open by itself.

_'Oh God...using the Force? Kanan must be really mad.' _"Hey Ezra," Hera greeted him as he came in and sat down on one of the chairs closest to the co-pilot's seat. "Hey Hera, how's it-" "okay." Kanan cut him off, "what happened? Because when we told you guys to go get us food and fuel, we didn't mean for you to get the whole Imperial exportations fleet on our trail as well."

Ezra bit his lip, "the whole fleet-?" "down to the last fighter, seriously, what happened? We had to go into hyperspace mode just to avoid getting into a chase, which we really can't afford since we're _low_ on fuel." Squirming in his seat, Ezra debated on whether or not to blame Zeb for the whole thing or own up to it.

"Ezra." Kanan gave him a pointed look, the one that meant 'I can sense your hesitation through the Force, don't bother lying to me'. Finally, Ezra chose to own up to his actions, not that he was ashamed of them in any way. As long as it pissed off the Empire, he was happy.

"Well, you see...Zeb and I were...we were just...okay...I saw an Imperial exportations ship and decided to hijack it, Zeb was only going along with me. But we got everything you wanted, enough fuel to keep _the Ghost_ airborne for at least another month, and enough food and water to last us twice that long...we also got a little blaster fire as a bonus."

Kanan rolled his eyes, not looking very impressed. Though much to Ezra's surprise, Hera was. "Wow, that's great. I'm so tired of having to struggle for credits every time we have to fuel up the ship, at least now we're set for a while, thanks Ezra, and send a thank you to Zeb next time you see him. Tell him, 'complements of Hera'."

Kanan stared at her quizzically for a moment, but Hera kept her eyes trained on the window in front of her. "Anyway, don't pull a stunt like this again...okay? The Empire's already doubled their security on Lothal, now they're going to triple it." Ezra nodded, "no problem."

He got up to leave, when Kanan called him back. "By the way, could you send Zeb in here?" A small smile made it's way to Ezra's face, "why? You wanna drag on him too?" "Like you said, your plan, his help. Your both guilty in this," "alright. I'll send Zeb in," Ezra responded.

He was just about to take another step, when Kanan called back to him once again. "One last thing, can you meet me in my room at four-thirty? It's been a while since we've trained, and I think it's a good idea if we get some in now before we make it to Mandelor." Ezra frowned, "Mandelor? Why-?" "To meet someone," Hera jumped in quickly, her voice sounding a little odd.

"Alright, fine, whatever, be secretive...I don't care. And I promise, I'll meet you in your room," and with a sigh, Ezra left the cockpit and returned to the Galley.

"Zeb!" He called out, and sure enough, the lasat was there. He was eating some protein bars, while Sabine sat across from him, painting something on a small canvas. "Kanan wants to see you," at his words, Zeb's face instantly soured. "Here we go," he muttered standing up. "The interrogation, from the warden himself." "Good luck," Ezra added as Zeb left, earning a glare from the retreating man.

"So, Ezra," Sabine piped up once Zeb was fully out of hearing range. "We've got some free time before our next rendezvous, why don't you go get some-" "sleep?" Sabine nodded, "I swear I'm fine though, really." She got up abruptly, then came over to him. "You have more bags under your eyes than I do and that says something, since I'm up most nights making us more of my little miracles." Oh yeah, her _bombs_.

"Sabine, I promise I'm getting more sleep now. The...nightmare's have stopped anyway," at Ezra's words, her eyes twinkled. "Really? They stopped? That's great! Does it still hurt when you use the...you know..." Ezra's eyes flitted around the room nervously, not wanting Kanan to hear what they were saying.

"No, I can use the Force again without getting migraines, alright? I'm telling you I'm fine, and just so you can relax, I'll go and take a nap right now...okay?" She nodded, "good. And thank God you won't be screaming in your sleep anymore, it was getting really hard to cover for you." Ezra smirked, "I still don't know how you managed to convince Zeb that I suffered from 'allergic reactions to lasat stink'." She smiled, "it's one of my many talents and plus, it got him to take a shower too."

Ezra smiled at her graciously, "thanks again for keeping my secret Sabine." The mandelorian smiled, "what are crew members for?" Oh God, how he desperately wanted to be more than just crew member's with her. "Anyway, you go get some shut eye before Captain crazy and Co-captain out of his mind finally decide to clue us in on who exactly we're meeting on Mandelor."

Ezra nodded, "right. Well, later." He waved to Sabine before heading down the hall to he and Zeb's room, climbing into his bunk, he closed his eyes and prayed that it would actually be different this time.

He'd lied back there to Sabine, lied about the nightmare's stopping. In fact they'd only gotten worse, sure he'd stopped getting headache's when using the Force, but now he get headache's just closing his eyes. And somehow, the Inquisitor had managed to project himself into Ezra's dreams; talk about awesome.

Most of his dreams nowadays were about everyone he currently cared for dying, sometimes by the Inquisitor's hand...and sometimes...by his own. Those dreams were the worst, the ones where he cut down all his friends...with a red lightsaber, his clothing all black, with a matching helmet.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Ezra allowed himself to lie down in his bed. With a final prayer, he closed his eyes. At first, nothing happened. And for a second, he thought that his prayers had finally been answered. That's when he made the mistake of letting down his mental shields, all hell broke loose in his head.

_Bodies...blood...buildings made of human bone and mountains made of ashes...the dead laid all around him. In his hand, he found a red lightsaber but instead of looking down on it disgusted by his actions, he reveled in them, reveled in the blood that coated his blade._

_The Inquisitor stood next to him, his arm on Ezra's shoulder. "Very good apprentice," the words slid off the bald man's tongue with ease. "Your...friends were just holding you back, it was for your benefit that they die." A wide smile broke out on the Inquisitor's face then, revealing a row of sharpened teeth. _

_Then, a mirror appeared magically before him, and as he neared it, Ezra realised that his eyes had turned the cover of molten gold, with red around the irises. _

_The color of a Sith._

_Horrified, Ezra screamed. _

_And screamed, and screamed until he was sure the whole galaxy could hear it. And just when the Inquisitor was going to speak once more..._

Ezra woke up.

He woke up in a cold sweat, with hives adorning his skin and he found himself unable to breath properly. That had been the worst dream yet, because while the others had seemed...unrealistic and surreal. This one, had felt more than real, in fact, it hadn't felt like a dream at all, it had felt like a premonition.

Suddenly, a sick feeling arose in his stomach. He immediately knew what it was, and grabbed the trash can near his bed right away. Bile rose up his throat, and he threw up whatever he'd eaten last, because he honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten.

Then just as the vomiting stopped, and he thought the worst had passed, the God-blasted ship had to lose an engine and start falling from the sky.


	2. Chapter 2: Survivor

**Disclaimer: I do not own star wars rebels, Disney does.**

"The hell is going on?" Ezra asked himself out loud, as he felt the ship lose altitude.

All thoughts of his previous nightmare forgotten, he sped out of his and Zeb's room before running towards the cockpit where his friend's were. "What's going on?" He asked, his voice still raspy from all the screaming he'd previously done. Kanan, from where he was sitting, answered curtly. "We're being shot at."

Ezra gaped, "yeah. But by who?" "Imperials, they found us, I have no idea how but they did. And one of their largest ships just blew one of our engines, we lose another and there's no way we'll stick any sort of landing." Hera responded this time, before flipping one of the many switches on _the Ghost's_ control panel.

"What can we do?" Sabine asked, her voice tight. "Well, you Zeb and Ezra can man the gunner's stations. And Chopper, we need those repairs to the hyperspace mechanism done, and try to see if you can initiate invisibility mode while your at it. And for God's sake, fix that engine."

A few beeps of agreement rang out, before the droid left the cockpit. Suddenly, Sabine grabbed Ezra's arm, "c'mon. Let's go see how many of those Imperials we can blast down," and the next thing he knew, she was dragging him through the halls of _the Ghost_, Zeb right behind them.

His arm tingled where she held it, and he couldn't help but stare at her hand. Upon reaching the gunner's station though, her hand left his arm and the feeling evaporated. "I got the massive one on the right," Zeb said, his hands already on the gun's trigger.

"I'll take out the TIES that are too close to the ship's hull," Sabine announced as well. "And I'll just...try to shoot as many of them down as I can," Ezra stated. And only ten minutes later, the three of them had managed to blow away half of the Imperial's fleet, but unfortunately for them more just kept coming.

"There are more of 'em!" Zeb cried, "we keep blasting 'em down but they just keep coming!" Sabine shook her head angrily, "it's a whole fleet. What did you expect?" Ezra remained silent in his seat as both of his friends spoke, the only thought in his head was _'this is my fault'_. If he hadn't talked Zeb into robbing that ship back on Lothal, they wouldn't have an entire fleet on their tail now.

"I got another one," Sabine said as she shot another of the bigger ships down. "How do you do that?" Ezra cried, finding it impossible to hit his own current target. "It's a gift kid," Sabine replied.

"Hey lovebirds, when your done chatting how about _focusing_!" Zeb exclaimed loudly, earning a glare from both Ezra and Sabine. "Oh shut up," they both said simultaneously.

Just then, the ship jerked to the right. Causing all three of them to misfire their shots, "karabast! We know what's happening behind us, but what's happening in front of us?" "I have no idea, why is Hera rocking the ship like that? The ships we're shooting at aren't firing." "But maybe there are more ships up front that are," Ezra said.

"Damn," Sabine muttered angrily. Suddenly, she got up abruptly and left the gunner's station she was previously manning."Keep firing. I'll go see what's happening up front!" And with that, she was gone. "So kid," Zeb said casually as he shot down another ship. "You and Sabine...is that going anywhere?"

Ezra scowled, "like I'd really tell...actually...no. It's not going anywhere, but you could probably see that without me having to tell you." A wide grin appeared on Zeb's face, "I think the whole crew could see it actually."

"Shut up," Ezra retorted. "It's too bad though, I could really picture you two together," "yeah right. The only way you could picture us together is if we were both locked in an Imperial cell."

Zeb laughed, "yeah! That's accurate enough, you for using the Force and her for blowing up Imperial bases. The perfect couple," "I can see our wedding now. It'll happen in one of the Empire's prisons. You can be my best man," another laugh rang out from the lasat next to him.

"I think Kanan would be downright jealous, and Hera would only throw a fit about how you two are too young for that level of 'commitment'." Ezra was about to reply, when Sabine ran back in.

"Guys! Hold onto something!" She cried, before slipping back into her station and clutching the gun for dear life. "What? Why are you-? OH MY GOD!" Ezra hadn't even finished his sentence, before seeing a group of five or six TIES fly straight at them. They hit the ship at a speed so deadly, that it almost cracked the hangar of _the Ghost_ itself.

"What are they doing!? Flying straight at us is suicide! They can't be that nuts!?" Zeb cried, nearly falling out of his chair. "It's happening up front too!" Sabine exclaimed, "Hera's holding up for now. But she can't keep avoiding oncoming ships forever and at this rate _the Ghost_ will literally _explode_!"

"What!?" "The mirror in the cockpit's already cracked, one more hit from those TIES and we'll lose gravity, oxygen and more altitude than we already are!" "Karabast! What do we do now? No matter how many we shoot down, we'll still crash at this point!"

Before Sabine could open her mouth to answer Zeb's question, a loud, blaring siren emanated throughout the ship. The intercom on the wall suddenly buzzed to life, and the sound of Kanan's worried voice came through clearly.

"Guys, we have some serious problems. Chopper can't fix the broken engine while we're in the air, which we won't be for much longer at this rate, oh, and also, HERA PASSED OUT."

Ezra, Zeb and Sabine shared a look. "WHAT!?" They all yelled back, "another TIE hit the side of the ship. She moved to avoid it and hit her head hard on the control panel as we accelerated. Her head's bleeding, someone has to come get her and take her to the med bay. NOW."

_'Oh God,'_ Ezra thought to himself._ 'Hera...' _"I'll go," Sabine said, already starting to stand. "No," Ezra stopped her before she could move. "Your a better shot then I am with a gun, you and Zeb keep blasting as many bucket heads as you can. I'll go, bring Hera to the med bay and then come right back. Okay?"

Both his friends nodded at him, and he wasted no time in rushing out of the gunner's station. He made it to the cockpit a few seconds later, slightly out of breath from running there so fast.

Kanan, now in the pilot's seat, had Hera in his arms. "Get her out of here," he said. Ezra nodded, grabbing Hera and struggling to support her weight. It didn't help that at that moment, Kanan jolted the ship to the right. Sending Ezra flying towards the nearest wall, Hera limp in his arms.

He knew he had to get her help, but something about the look on Kanan's face made him stay a minute longer. "Kanan, it isn't really the Imperial exportations fleet is it? They wouldn't chase us this long, and they seriously wouldn't risk ramming us at this speed either, is it...?" "The Inquisitor, yes. I sensed him the minute we lost one of our engines, I didn't want to tell the others though, it would only worry them." "Oh...great." Ezra muttered, before leaving the cockpit to head to the med bay.

He passed Chopper on the way, the droid was in the process of playing with some wires but the second he saw Hera unconscious in Ezra's arms, Chopper forgot all about the wires.

He followed Ezra to the med bay, stationing himself beside the cot Ezra laid Hera on. "It's okay Chopper, don't worry, she'll be fine. Hera's strong and it's only a small head injury, but _I_ have to get back to gunner's station to help Zeb and Sabine finish off the rest of those ships. And _you_ need to finish fixing the ship!"

But despite his words, Chopper wouldn't budge from Hera's side. "Chopper seriously, if you stay here, whose gonna fix the ship? We have to stay in the air!" The droid turned to Ezra, and pointed a metal arm at him. "Me? You want me to fix the ship? But I wouldn't know how, and I have to get back and help-"

A beep of frustration came from Chopper, signaling that he thought Sabine and Zeb could take care of the incoming Imperial ships themselves. "Fine, I'll see what I can do. But if we all end up crashing and burning, it's _your_ fault." Ezra threatened, pointing at finger at the droid.

Chopper didn't seem too worried though, all his attention was on Hera, who was lying deathly still. For a second, the pilot almost really looked dead, until Ezra saw her stomach rise and fall.

In reality, Ezra wasn't really surprised Chopper didn't want to leave Hera's side. It was obvious that the droid and the Twi-lek were close, Ezra actually didn't blame Chopper at all.

He sped back out of the med bay, and re-traced his steps to where he's crossed Chopper fiddling with the wires. He quickly found the spot, and began observing the wire colors carefully. Red meant to disengage, blue meant to engage and the other colors were lost on him. Luckily, the only wires he saw were red and blue.

The writing on the wall next to the open panel said, 'hyperspace mechanism'. Chopper had been in the process of fixing it, seeing as he couldn't fix the busted engine while they were in the air. Ezra quickly connected the loose wires together, hoping he was doing it right.

_'Red crosses blue, blue wraps around red...' _he thought to himself as he finished Chopper's work. The droid had left the wires all bunched up together, it wasn't really hard to figure out what to do next.

He pushed the panel back into it's place on the wall, before screaming to Kanan down in the cockpit. "I think I fixed it! Try to engage hyperspace mode!" Kanan's reply came several seconds later, "Ezra!? Where's Chopper? I thought he was supposed to-?" "Seriously!?" Ezra cut off the Jedi, "does it really matter at this point!? Just flip the switch!"

A few seconds later, Ezra felt _the Ghost_ creek and shake. Next thing he knew, there were no more sounds of gun fire from behind them. "Did it work!?" He called to Kanan, "yeah! It worked! Hyperspace mode is on!"

Cheers of joy began ringing out from the gunner's station, where Ezra assumed Sabine and Zeb were partying. He was just about to go join them when he remembered something, "the engine! Kanan! We can't stay in hyperspace mode if it isn't fixed!"

"I know!" Kanan called back to him, "I'm stopping at the nearest planet to land. The last thing we need is for the ship to explode!" Oh God, there was that word again.

* * *

><p>"Anyway, that was some pretty sick handiwork kid." Sabine complemented him as they landed on Mandelor, which had conveniently been the closest planet where they could land <em>the Ghost<em>.

"Your shooting wasn't so bad either, I don't think I've ever heard so much gun fire before." Sabine smirked at him, "you should've seen how many ships we blasted. Seriously, we made a huge dent in the Empire's fleet."

Ezra grinned, before watching Zeb approach them. "Hera's up and at 'em." He said, "and you won't believe how pissed she is at how banged up 'her baby' is." Sabine rolled her eyes, "wait till she finds out how much it'll cost us to buy the parts needed to fix it." "Don't think we got enough credits for that," Ezra laughed.

"And you should've been there when she woke up and discovered that Kanan was piloting her ship _alone_, I've never seen her that angry." All three of them broke out into a fit of laughter at that, because they all knew how scary Hera got when she was mad.

"Anyway, did Chopper patch her up?" "Yup, she's fine, if not a little bitter that she managed to knock herself out." "But guys, really though, like on a serious level. Did that attack seem like more than just a usual one? I don't think the Empire would've sent TIES to try and ram us just for stealing food, they're not that crazy."

Ezra gulped, not able to meet Sabine's eyes. "Yeah, when you mention it...it did seem kinda weird. I really didn't think Ezra and I had managed to rile them up that badly," Zeb added.

"And also...what was with that last ship I blasted? Remember the tidal wave of energy we felt?" "What tidal wave of energy?" Ezra jumped in, "what? Oh...it was nothing...just...whatever...I'm pretty sure we imagined it anyway, but...you know how when you and Kanan use the...Force? Well, it was like that. I blasted one last Imperial ship before we went into hyperspace mode, and the raw energy I felt after I blasted it...was weird. It was like seeing you guys train with the Force, except a little more...dark I guess? I don't know...like I said, we probably imagined it."

Ezra's eyes widened a little at her words, "you felt it too?" He asked Zeb, "well...sorta. I mean...I'm not Force-sensitive or anything but...it was really huge. Like...you know when Kanan talks about using the dark side?" Ezra's blood suddenly ran cold, "y-yeah...?" "Well, it felt like that. Just like...well...just like darkness I guess, not that it matters now anyways, we won!"

Zeb high-fived Sabine happily, and Ezra managed to force a smile on his face for their sakes. "Yeah, right, that's all that matters anyway..." he said, hoping neither of his friends noticed the slight edge in his voice.

Just then, he saw Kanan and Hera's shadows appear in his periphery. "Hey guys," Sabine greeted them. Hera smiled back at her weakly, her head wrapped in gauze. "Hey," Kanan said advancing towards the three.

"Sabine, I need you to go with Hera into town, alright?" "She doesn't have to," Hera interjected. "I can get the parts myself," "no you can't, _you_ have a concussion. We don't need you getting more hurt, besides, I'm sure you and Sabine could use some...girl...time?" Kanan said awkwardly, more as a question than a statement.

"Oh yeah!" Sabine cheered, "I need to know that I'm not alone in the world. Hera and I can braid each other's hair and drink cosmos together, it'll be a blast to do something without you boys involved." "Hey!" All three men cried in unison, "thank you Sabine. I was about to go crazy," Hera added her two-cents in as well.

"It's three against two yet we're getting beaten, how is that possible?" Zeb growled, "because Sabine can make deadly explosives and Hera can leave us stranded here?" Ezra suggested, "oh...right." Sabine rolled her eyes at the two's antics before following Hera back into the ship.

"Whatever, you guys can stand out here and talk sexism and chauvinistic acts all day if you want to, but us girls will be hitting the market. Oh, and for good measure, we'll take the blasters too." Zeb's face dropped, "she's trying to upstage us!" He cried in mock anger, "oh Zeb...we already have."

Zeb whirled around to face Kanan, who's head was in his hands. "I hope your happy," Zeb exclaimed. "Because of you, these two tyrants are ordering us around. Our world's going to hell in a hand basket. Good job!"

And with that, the lasat pushed past both girls and stormed into the ship angrily, even though everyone could tell he wasn't mad in the least. "Anyway," Hera said awkwardly. "We'll be going now," she handed Sabine two blasters, and with that they were both gone.

"Tell Zeb and Chopper to be good while we're gone! And remember to meet our contact at the location I gave you!" Hera cried as they left, causing Ezra to remember why they'd even been heading for Mandelor in the first place.

"Oh yeah," Ezra said. "Who do you have meet with anyway?" Kanan's face turned blank, "no one important." "Argh! Again with the secrets! Whatever, just go and I'll keep Zeb company. We can play a game of sabacc and talk about what's wrong with our lives."

"Wait," Kanan said exasperated as Ezra walked away from him. "Yes?" "How about you come with me, and we leave Zeb here with Chopper? No questions asked?" Ezra nodded eagerly, "deal." "Aright," Kanan sighed. "Follow me, and please, don't say anything once we get there, these people are more sketchy than anyone you've met before." Ezra simply nodded, "cool."

"And bring your lightsaber," Kanan threw in casually. Ezra suddenly halted, "what? Why?" "Cause it might turn out bad," Kanan said quickly. "O...kay..." Ezra trailed off, heading back to the ship to grab his lightsaber. He called a farewell to Zeb on his way out, still not completely sure Kanan was telling him the whole truth...or even part of the truth.

"So," Ezra said casually, hoping to get some answers out of the Jedi while he wasn't expecting it. "Yeah?" Kanan answered, "could you...maybe tell me the difference between a premonition and a dream? You know...just for future references?" Kanan suddenly froze beside him, "what?"

Ezra bit his lip nervously, "never mind. It was a dumb question anyway," he said trying quickly to change subject. But Kanan wouldn't be deterred, "oh no. Your not getting out of it that easy, did you really just ask me about the difference between a premonition and a dream? Why would you ask that?" "Just forget it," Ezra said once again, trying uselessly to switch topic. "No really, Ezra-" "hey! Look! Is that our contact?" Ezra said louder than he needed to, pointing at a figure in the distance, who was leaning on a road sign.

Kanan sent him a look, one that said their conversation wasn't even remotely over. "Well, well." The man-most likely a Rodian-said as they approached. "I thought Hera was gonna meet with me, instead I get the Jedi. Whatever," "enough games Kaveh." Kanan said hurriedly, "Hera was busy. You got me instead, our business stays the same. Besides, I thought I was meeting with Fulcrum. Not you," the Rodian's eyes instantly brightened at Kanan's words.

"The boss was busy, had better and more important things to do today." "So I guess we're both stuck with each other then, nevertheless, where's the chip?" The Rodian-Kaveh-made sure there was no one around, before handing Kanan a USB from his pocket. "There ya go," he grinned. "Now where's your part of the deal?"

Kanan scowled at the man's rude attitude, before he too reached into his pocket. He pulled out 50 credits, which was a lot to just be walking around with. "Here," Kanan said, handing the credits over. "Good, my work here is done, I'll tell Fulcrum everything went smoothly." "And," Kanan interjected. "That we'll be in touch," the Rodian grinned once more. "We'll be waiting in anticipation."

And with that, Kaveh walked away, and was out of sight faster than Ezra thought possible. "So," Ezra asked as soon as the man was fully gone. "What's on that chip that's worth 50 credits?" "Info on the Empire," Kanan responded. "About one of their prisons, there's someone they've got locked up there that we need." Ezra frowned, "who?" "No one you'd know, just be ready for when we have to break them out."

Nodding, Ezra began to head back to the ship. "Not that way," Kanan called to him suddenly. Ezra turned back around, before furrowing his brows at the Jedi. "Why? The ship's that way?" "I know, but there's a place I want you to see, that way." A small smirk appeared on Kanan's face, "oh...now I get why you wanted me to bring my lightsaber!" Ezra groaned, mentally punishing himself for not getting it before. "Yeah, well, you haven't exactly been ecstatic about training lately. So I figured, maybe tricking you would've been easier than convincing you."

"Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission," Ezra summed up. "I hate having that done to me, _I'm_ supposed to be the one _doing_ it." "Not this time," his master grinned. "Now c'mon, we'll start with lightsaber training." "So no Force training?" Ezra asked, silently praying. "No, we'll do that after." _'Damn'_, he thought to himself, cringing slightly.

"You okay?" Kanan asked him, a note of concern in his voice. "Yeah! Of course! I'm a survivor, why wouldn't I be okay?" Ezra replied confidently, though on the inside, he'd rather be getting squashed by Zeb back on _the Ghost._


	3. Chapter 3: Grounded

**Disclaimer: Disney owns star wars rebels, not me.**

"Your not trying." "Yes I am!" "Then try harder, and stop screaming." "I'm not screaming!" "Yes you are, stay calm." "I AM CALM!" "Really? No, really, Ezra, what's up?"

Ezra dropped to his knees, trying to catch his breath. His lightsaber in his right hand, gripped loosely. "I'm sorry," he said to Kanan, who stood towering over him. "Unbelievable," Kanan muttered, turning away from his padawan.

"A couple of days ago, I practically had to _force_ you to put down your lightsaber and focus on other things. Now, that we're finally training and I need you to give it your all, your just flat out refusing to even listen to me." "I'm just tired," Ezra groaned, trying to defend himself.

Kanan sighed, and took a deep breath, before pinching the bridge of his nose. Looking as if he was trying to count to ten in order to calm himself down, but he was already at eight and it wasn't working. "I get that your tired, but what I don't get is-" "What? You don't get what?" Ezra cut him off, "then let me spell it out for you!"

He stood up abruptly, all the frustration he'd been keeping in for the past few days rising to the surface and making him beyond angry.

"I just finished getting chased by Imperials-with blasters-a couple of _hours_ ago for _God's sake_! And then just as I was about to take a nap, we get shot out of the sky and I end up having to shoot down massive ships and dozens of TIE fighters! Oh! And then! AND THEN! I end up having to fix the hyperspace mechanism on the ship, knowing that if I don't get it done, we're gonna EXPLODE! So I'm sorry if I'm not in the mood to train...can you just give me a break?"

The second the string of words left his lips, Ezra instantly regretted them. But it was too late, they were already spoken and out there, and he couldn't take them back. But then, instead of apologizing to Kanan for his words like he knew he should do, he just stood there and stared at the ground in silence, waiting for the man to respond.

And for a while, Kanan didn't say a word, just stood there, quietly observing his padawan. "Forget this," Ezra muttered angrily, seeing as Kanan wasn't going to say anything anytime soon. "I'm heading back to the ship, you hear me? I'm tired, hungry and fed up. I'm not having a very good day, besides, maybe watching Zeb try to fry Chopper's circuits will make me feel better."

"Is it because of the nightmares?" Kanan asked suddenly, just as Ezra was turning to leave. A look of absolute terror flashed across Ezra's face at his master's words, before he remembered, _deny, deny, deny, deny everything_.

"What are you-?" "Don't even try playing that with me, I can sense the fatigue, fear and anxiety all over you. Plus, those bags under your eyes aren't invisible, and I'm not blind. And do you really think I hadn't noticed the way you and Sabine have been acting? All the incidents that have passed this last week? Also, every time you woke up screaming in the middle of the night, she somehow had a reason for it, kind of like it was _rehearsed_."

"That's not it at all, it's not rehearsed, she and I, we just have-" "oh no. Don't you dare say that the reason Sabine always seems to have a plausible excuse for your numerous 'incidents' is because you two share a deep, emotional 'connection'. Cause I'm not blind to that either, and trust me, you two are going nowhere on that front."

Ezra mocked a hurt look, "okay. One, that was way hurtful, and two, maybe your the one who needs more sleep because _I'm fine_." "No your not, gosh. Why can't you just admit that something's bothering you? Nightmares are nothing to be ashamed of, besides, you must've had plenty when you were on your own back on Lothal, what's changed about them now?"

Ezra bit his tongue, knowing that if he opened his mouth, he'd spill his guts to Kanan about everything, and that was the last thing he wanted. "Nothing, just drop it. I'm fine."

The Jedi's face turned concerned, "wait a minute. Is this why you asked me about the difference between a dream and a premonition before? God, Ezra, what the hell is going on with you?"

Turning his back to his master, Ezra felt his eyes beginning to sting a little. "Just drop it," he muttered. "Now, what kind of teacher would I be if I just let you suffer in silence?" "A compliant one?" Ezra groaned, running his hands through his floppy, navy hair.

"Compliant has never really been my style," Kanan retorted. "Now c'mon, just tell me what's going on. For real, no lies." At his words, Ezra whipped back around to face the Jedi.

"Don't you get it? I can't tell you, it's not something shareable." "That's why I'm not giving you a choice," Kanan smiled. "You can tell me what's up, or I can find out about it later, and then get mad at you for not telling me, either way, same ending."

Ezra took a small step away from Kanan, before turning back around so as not to look the man in the face, afraid that he'd cave and reveal everything he'd been withholding for the past month if the Jedi got any close to him or looked him in the eyes. "I pick the second option, I'm fine with you yelling at me, so long as it happens later and not now."

Suddenly, Ezra felt a hand clamp down gently on his shoulder, making his body go rigid. "You know you can talk to me, right?" The Jedi said, in a softer voice this time. "I know," Ezra replied stiffly, not knowing where to run anymore.

"Then why does it seem like I'm the last person you trust?" "No, it's not...it's not like that." Ezra answered nervously, weighing his options in his head. _'Slip out of Kanan's hold and run back to the ship where I can hide and avoid further questions, or turn around and tell him everything?'_

Suddenly, the hand on his shoulder was pulled back, making Ezra believe Kanan had given up on trying to get answers out of him. A little part of him was actually hurt because of it, hurt because of how he was pushing his friend away.

Then, just when he thought he was free to head back to the ship, he felt an arm wrap around both his shoulders this time, making escape impossible. "Damn," he muttered under his breath. "Your not giving up, are you?" "Not if it means I'm gonna be woken up by your screaming _again_ tonight." Kanan responded, his voice dry.

Ezra then proceeded to risk a look at the man beside him, feeling something within him snap at the look of pure concern on Kanan's face. "Okay," Ezra said abruptly, sucking in a deep breath to steady himself. "I'll tell you everything, just please don't hate me."

* * *

><p>Kanan frowned, "I could never hate you." "You won't think that after what I tell you," Ezra warned him, continuously raking his hands threw his hair, trying to figure out where to even start explaining.<p>

"Okay," he said after a moment of collecting his thoughts. "It started around a month ago, after finishing that job for Lando. So, at first I thought it was just a side effect of using the dark side. Then, it started happening every night."

Kanan didn't say anything, just listened, and Ezra had never been more grateful to have someone who was willing to listen to him. "Nightmares, at first they were about my parents, about the day they disappeared. Then, it started...getting worse, more vivid, more realistic...less like dreams and more like...reality. Anyway, a couple of weeks into it, the nightmares stopped being about my parents, and started being about you."

Kanan's eyes widened, but still he didn't speak. "About you, and Zeb, and Hera and Sabine, even Chopper. The Inquisitor was there too, and most of the time, the nightmares would end with him killing you."

"Most of the time?" Kanan spoke for the first time, "yeah. Like ninety percent of the time, it was him killing you all." "What about the other ten percent?" Kanan asked him, causing Ezra's blood to freeze. He didn't answer for a really long time, before realizing that talking about it, was better than going through it alone.

"The other ten percent of the time, it's _me_ killing you all." Kanan's mouth nearly dropped open, "what?" "You heard me," Ezra sighed, feeling hopeless. "In my dreams, sometimes I dream about killing you all, without even blinking. And...the Inquisitor would still be there, calling himself my master. I'd been wearing all black, and using a red lightsaber."

Kanan's eyes had steadily been getting bigger with every word Ezra spoke, "and my eyes..." Ezra continued, fiddling with his fingers, "they'd be gold with red around the edges."

"A Sith's color?" Kanan asked, his voice weary. "Yeah," Ezra responded quietly. And for a long time, neither of them spoke a word. Ezra, still fiddling with his fingers, refused to meet Kanan's eyes, while the Jedi himself, could only stare at the boy in front of him.

After a few more beats of silence, the older man finally spoke. "Well then...I think it's time to go back to the ship," he announced, already in motion. He sidestepped around Ezra, who in turn, was shocked at his master's reaction. He'd expected Kanan to freak out at him, yell at him, be disappointed in him, not...brush him off like he hadn't even said anything.

* * *

><p>But hell, he wasn't going to argue, a part of him was actually relieved to have the topic changed. So, they both returned to the ship in silence, neither of them finding the will to speak. And as they saw the outline of their ship in the horizon, Ezra realized something was wrong, terribly, horribly wrong.<p>

He didn't know what it was though, because from the outside, everything seemed fine. But something in him told him that something bad had happened on board_ the Ghost_ only a few short moments ago, so he didn't waste any time before running towards it.

He could distinctly hear Kanan calling his name from behind him, but Ezra didn't want to stop and explain, no, he just wanted to get to the ship and make sure everything was okay. He reached the hangar door a few seconds later, slightly out of breath. Waving his hand and calling on the Force, the door to the ship flew open, but not gently.

Kanan yelled at him again, probably something along the lines of, _'oh now you want to use the Force?' _Once again, Ezra ignored him. Racing inside the ship, he wasted no time in heading towards the cockpit, his gut told him to go there first.

Reaching, he waved his hand again, causing another door to be blown open. The first thing he saw upon entering the cockpit, was Chopper, the droid was lying in a heap of scrap metal on the floor, meaning, someone had taken him _apart_.

For a moment, it seemed like time stopped, and Ezra couldn't focus clearly on what he was seeing in front of him. Someone...had...disassembled Chopper? Who the hell would-Zeb. Oh no, Zeb wasn't in the cockpit, where was he?

More fear struck Ezra as he raced back out of the cockpit, letting his gut guide him to his next location, Sabine's room. _'Why would Zeb be in there?' _A voice in his head said_, 'does it really matter?' _Another voice shot back, angrier than the first one. And Ezra wasn't really sure he was supposed to be having a back and forth with himself, he wasn't even supposed to be hearing voices either.

But at the moment, his sanity and mental stability were the last things he should be thinking about, finding Zeb and making sure the idiot was okay, that was number one. And if he was lucky, he'd find the lasat in better shape than he'd found Chopper in, hopefully Zeb wouldn't be disassembled too.

He reached Sabine's room in record time, waving his hand and blowing the door open again, knocking was overrated anyway. He entered the room quickly, the sight even more horrible than what he'd seen in the cockpit. The walls, were covered in red-hopefully it was paint-and so was the ceiling and the floor.

Ever fiber of him at that moment, was in overdrive. Zeb wasn't in here, Ezra couldn't see him anywhere. But what he could see, was Sabine's closet door slightly ajar. He advanced towards it slowly, his footsteps not making a sound. Once he was close enough to it, he raised his hand again, and slowly pushed the already open door back more, inch by inch.

What he saw once the door was fully open, made him almost puke. Zeb was there, covered in red-again hopefully paint-and looked like he'd gone a couple rounds with the Inquisitor. His lip was sure as hell bleeding, it was split wide open. There was a huge gash running from his temple down to his chin, and his head was coated in sweat and dried blood.

Not to mention the dozens of bruises running down his arms, his left leg-which was sticking out at an unnatural angle, and the scariest thing-his right eye that was swollen shut, but was leaking blood from underneath his eyelid.

To say the least, it was a massive relief and surprise that Ezra found a pulse when he touched Zeb's neck. If anyone else had gotten hurt like this, they'd probably be dead, but this wasn't anyone, it was Zeb. And Ezra knew, the lasat's will to live was stronger than anyone else's.

With that thought in mind, Ezra wrapped his arms around Zeb's shoulders, and tried to carry him to the med bay-with no suck luck. It was blatantly obvious Ezra wasn't strong enough to carry his friend, Zeb was at least 6 feet tall! But he couldn't just leave him there, so he tried a different way.

Closing his eyes and calling on the Force one last time, Ezra raised both his hands, then re-opened his eyes. Sure enough, Zeb was floating, and Ezra wasted no time in getting him to the med bay, in fear that he'd lose his concentration-then drop him.

Upon reaching, Ezra gently lowered Zeb onto a cot, and used whatever medical knowledge Hera had taught him, to hook him up to an IV. Seeing as the lasat had definitely lost a lot of blood, and if Ezra knew how to give stitches, he would've done that too.

Suddenly, another thought occurred to him,_ 'were Hera and Sabine here when this happened too?'_ God he hoped not, he couldn't handle seeing more of his friends hurt. But fortunately, he couldn't sense them on the ship, the Force was telling him they hadn't return yet, thank whoever was out there.

The only people he could sense on the ship at the moment, was himself, Zeb and-KANAN! Dear God, he'd left Kanan outside. Without an explanation of any kind, he had to find him, _now_.

He raced towards the cockpit, where he could sense Kanan the strongest. And sure enough, there was his master, leaning over the fallen droid, so many emotions visible on his face.

"Kanan-" "what the hell happened?" Kanan cut him off, "well...outside...you know when I ran off? I felt something was wrong, that's why I left-" "I know, I felt it too. That's why I was screaming at you, I felt that something wasn't right the second we got close enough to the ship."

Ezra bent down on the ground next to the Jedi, his eyes drawn to the scrambled form of his friend. "Who could've done something like this?" Ezra asked angrily, "there was no sign of forced entry, no sign that someone broke in or blasted-" "it was a Force user." Kanan once again interrupted his padawan. "Only someone Force-sensitive could've entered the ship without leaving a trace."

"You mean someone used the Force to hurt Zeb and Chopper?" Kanan's eyes instantly brightened, "Zeb!?" Ezra suddenly froze, berating himself for saying something that would only worry Kanan more. "Yeah, he's alive though. I got him to the med bay-" and with that information, Kanan was gone in a flash, he hadn't even waited for Ezra to finish his sentence.

Sighing in defeat, Ezra ran his hands over the scattered pieces that used to be Chopper. Hera could fix him, she would, he knew without a doubt that she would. And then the droid would be back to normal, so would Zeb, and then they'd fix the ship and get back to doing what they had to.

_'It's fine, everything's gonna be okay,'_ Ezra thought to himself, _'life can't be horrible all the time.'_ He was just about to get back up, to go find Kanan, when he saw something white slipped under the pilot's chair, impossibly close to where Chopper's parts were spread out. Too close, so whatever the object was, it hadn't been left there by accident, and it definitely hadn't been there before.

_'The person who did this had to have left it there on purpose,'_ one of the voice's in Ezra's mind said. So cautiously, very cautiously, Ezra reached for the object, which turned out to be a sheet of white paper. He unfolded it carefully, and nearly had a heart attack-even at his young age-when he saw what was written.

_I just moved my second pawn into place, the next move's yours young padawan. -The Inquisitor._

It was only one phrase, simple and written in a way that a two-year old could understand it, but still it scared Ezra more than facing dozens of Imperial ships. He tightened his fist around the piece of paper, crumpling it into a little ball before stuffing it in his back pocket to analyze later, when his headache went away and he wasn't on the verge of soiling his pants in terror.

And apparently, he wasn't hiding his terror very well, because five seconds later Kanan came running back into the cockpit. "Ezra, what's wrong? Did something else happen? I felt a distress signal from you through the bond," the Jedi said.

"Um..." Ezra trailed off, contemplating whether or not to tell Kanan about the note. "No, nothing else happened." He continued after his earlier pause, quickly deciding that since the note was addressed to him, it didn't involve Kanan and so long as Kanan was out of it, he was better off. "Everything's just as you left it last, crappy."

Kanan sent his padawan a look, "this isn't a time for talking about how crappy everything is, it'd take too long anyhow. Besides, in a couple of minutes Hera and Sabine will be back and we'll have to tell them what we know about what happened."

"Which isn't much," Ezra interjected. "We don't know much," "gee...thanks for laying it out for me." Kanan groveled, before pausing in thought, as if to remember something.

"Oh, and also, they couldn't find the parts we needed. When I called them earlier, Hera told me they couldn't find any of the parts we'd need to fix _the Ghost_. Looks like we're gonna be grounded here for a while kid, hope you like Mandelor."

And with that, Kanan left the cockpit once again. Leaving Ezra to his thoughts, all alone. And those were the times he hated, the times when he was alone. Because that's when the voices in his head would start yelling at him, and his skull felt like it was gonna implode.

But it could've been worse, at least he wasn't having terrifying images flash through his mind anymore, because the few times that had happened in the past weeks, had already left him scarred enough.

Ezra reached for the note in his back pocket again, re-reading it over and over, wondering what he was missing. It was obviously the Inquisitor who'd left it under the pilot's seat, where he knew Ezra would find it. It was also obvious that it had been the Inquisitor who'd attacked the ship and Zeb and Chopper, after all, what other crazy Imperial did they know who hated them so much?

And damn, did the Inquisitor know how to leave an impression. Ezra would probably be having more nightmares about him for the next few weeks they'd be grounded on Mandelor, wouldn't that add insult to injury.

But then again, as he thought about it more, there was something else that bothered him about what had happened, something having to do with the note, and whatever it was, it made Ezra's head spin. Then suddenly, as he re-tucked the crumpled wad of paper back into his back pocket, he realized what was so weird about the note left for him by the Inquisitor.

It had said, _'second pawn'_, but since when had the Inquisitor moved a first pawn into place? _'Damn it, stupid baldy and his freakin' chess references'_, Ezra swore inwardly. Then suddenly, it all clicked, everything from the past couple of hours clicked. It all came into focus, everything slid perfectly into place right then, like the first half of a puzzle.

First move, he and Zeb had stolen goods from an Imperial exportations ship. Second move, the Inquisitor had sent a whole fleet after them, managing to blast one of their engines and then follow them to where they'd emergency landed. But then, the Inquisitor had messed up predicting their third move. He'd probably figured that they'd all go get the spare parts needed to fix the ship's engine, but he'd miscalculated and because of that, he'd had to alter his next move.

Instead of getting in and out, leaving the note he'd written and then leaving, the Inquisitor had run into Zeb and Chopper, and that confrontation had resulted in some...unfortunate injuries to the lasat and droid. And the next move, well, Ezra figured it was up to him to make it up as he went along.

And damn did he hope he could keep up with the Inquisitor's strategy and planning, seeing as it wasn't just his life in the running anymore. Because the second the Inquisitor had hurt Zeb and Chopper, he'd made the game personal.

And Ezra just hoped he could win, because he didn't even want to think about what would happen to his friend's, if he ended up in checkmate.


	4. Chapter 4: Hardwired

**Disclaimer: I don't own star wars rebels, Disney does, no matter how much I wish otherwise.**

"He is going to pay!"

"I don't care if it takes me my whole life!"

"Even if I have to go to the end of the damn galaxy!"

"I AM GOING TO FIND HIM AND MAKE HIM WISH HE'D NEVER BEEN BORN!"

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...Sabine's ranting went on and on for hours. From the second she and Hera had returned to the ship-already in foul moods, Sabine hadn't stopped screaming at the top of her lungs about getting vengeance.

In fact, it was starting to scare Ezra a little. Not that he didn't agree with her, actually, it was quite the opposite. In his head, he doing a lot more than just threatening the Inquisitor, his thoughts were beyond morbid. But still, the last thing the team needed at the moment was for the mandelorian to go nuclear.

And while Ezra really did want to go help Sabine, he had a feeling that making her feel less angry while he himself was pissed as hell, wouldn't be very effective. It was better to just let Kanan do it, the Jedi could calm anyone down no matter how...damaged.

And that's what they were, every single one of them, they were all damaged. Some worse than others, and some...maybe beyond repair. Speaking of repairs, Ezra wondered how Hera was doing with re-building Chopper. Though, after finding the Inquisitor's note, he still couldn't believe the Chopper was even fixable, Ezra had been sure that the Inquisitor would have made sure to leave the droid a heap of unrepairable scrap metal. Until Hera had told him about being able to restore Chopper's hard drive, Ezra had truly thought the droid was gone for good.

And that's what confused Ezra the most, that Chopper _wasn't_ gone for good. Because he should be, it was obvious that the droid should be unfixable. But somehow, someway, Chopper's hard drive hadn't been severely damaged, meaning Hera could re-make him. Of course, all of his friends were grateful for that, they'd deemed it a stroke of luck and an act of carelessness on the Inquisitor's part for not fully destroying Chopper.

But while Ezra was grateful for it, he knew better. He knew the Inquisitor, knew how his mind worked. The Inquisitor was thorough, he never would've made such a mistake. When he wanted someone gone, the Inquisitor made sure that they were _really gone_ beyond any point of return. And that's what made Ezra suspicious, leaving him to wonder why the Inquisitor would make suck a rookie mistake.

_'Because it's part of his plan,'_ the darker of the two voices whispered inside Ezra's head. _'Because he's got the whole board in perspective, while you've only got your eye on one side of it and he's going to use that to his advantage, if he hasn't already.' _

God, not again. The voices in his head had been talking for over an hour, usually the lighter one spoke, but sometimes the darker one would open it's damn mouth every one in a while. _'No one asked for your opinion,'_ Ezra thought to himself.

The voice instantly silenced, though after a few moments of quiet, he found himself wishing for it to start talking again. Suddenly, a different noise sounded throughout the cockpit, which is where he currently was.

His eyes flitted to the cockpit's door, where Kanan poked his head in. "Hey," he said softly. "What now?" Ezra replied, getting straight to the point. "Zeb. He's awake," Kanan informed him, the ghost of a smile on his face. Ezra immediately sprang to his feet from where he was sitting in the pilot's chair, "I need to see him." "Then c'mon," Kanan responded. Not needing to be told twice, Ezra was out the door faster than normally possible.

He reached the med bay a few seconds later, a little out of breath. And almost immediately upon arrival, Ezra felt someone launch themselves at him. A startled, 'oomph!' made it's way out of his mouth upon impact.

He didn't need to be told who it was, the strength of the hug, and the amount of height this person had over him said it all. "Hey...Zeb," he managed out. "God kid, you had me worried sick." Ezra attempted to roll his eyes, but the lack of oxygen getting to his brain made any movement impossible. "You were...worried...?" He gasped, "I wasn't...the one...who got...beat up." "No, but he came here looking for you. I was worried you'd gone and done something stupid," the lasat said.

At Zeb's words, Ezra felt like he was going to throw up. The Inquisitor hadn't come to just leave a threatening note, he'd come to do the actual threatening _in_ person, and when he hadn't been able to find him, he'd gone to plan B. So Zeb getting hurt...and Chopper getting taken apart, was all his fault. Everything was because of him, damn, he'd never felt so guilty before. But he should've guessed, everything nowadays seemed to be his doing. Or at least, he'd found one way or another to carry all the blame. But this time, he didn't have to point the finger at himself, the Inquisitor was already doing that for him.

"Kid? Are you okay? Your staring at nothing, and you look paler than usual. Am I squeezing you too tight-sorry about that, I'm just really relieved your not dead or locked up." Zeb released his hold on him, but even with the air restored in his lungs, he couldn't find the will to talk...or breath. Thankfully, Kanan-who'd been silent through all of this, decided to finally speak up.

"It doesn't matter what the Inquisitor was here to do, or if it had anything to do with Ezra doing something stupid. The point is, he came into _our_ house, and went through _our_ filing cabinets. He doesn't know who he just robbed, but I promise you, we're not just going to stand here and watch him loot the goods." Zeb's eyes narrowed, "God Kanan. Your starting to sound like Sabine," the Jedi simply rolled his eyes. "So you'd rather not retaliate?" He asked Zeb, who's jaw dropped. "Do you even know me at all? Of course I want to retaliate! Look what baldy did to me! What he did to Chopper! He'll be lucky if I don't kill him when I get my hands on him."

Kanan smiled, "there we go. That's the spirit, now c'mon. We can't really do anything about the ship, until we can get the parts we need, but we can go over the chip I got from our contact in the meantime." Zeb's eyes widened, "you got the chip?" Kanan nodded, "yeah. Now c'mon, I'll help you to the cockpit." The Jedi wrapped an arm around the lasat's shoulder, and they both left the med bay together.

Over his shoulder, Kanan called back, "Ezra! You coming?" And for a while, Ezra didn't answer, couldn't, his mouth wouldn't work properly. He had to force it open, and when he did, all that came out was, "ya...sure." Not even a full sentence, but full sentences were overrated anyway, especially when you couldn't even think straight.

And that was his problem at the moment, he couldn't think straight. All he could think about, over and over, was that two of his best friends had just gotten pummeled because of him. Because he just had to get on the Inquisitor's bad side, more so than anyone else. He didn't even understand why the Inquisitor was so obsessed with him anyway, what made him so special? The fact that 'the Force was strong with him' or for some other reason, and if it was the former, why was the Inquisitor not as crazy about Kanan then too? Kanan, who was a Jedi already? It made _no_ sense, and that was his biggest complication, NOTHING MADE SENSE.

A sudden yell resonated from the cockpit at that moment, it was Sabine's, telling him to get his ass over there A.S.A.P. So, with a hopeless sigh, he managed to drag himself back to the cockpit, before plopping down on one of the chairs. "Whoa, what happened to you?" Sabine asked him the second he sat down, "what do you mean?" Ezra replied in a tone devoid of any emotion, "nothing happened to _me_ exactly. I'm just peachy," "yeah. Sure, and I'm high on life cause it's _so_ awesome." She shot back, eyes twinkling. God, he couldn't formulate words when her eyes twinkled like that.

The sound of Hera's voice interrupted his...thoughts, and whatever conversation he and Sabine had started. "Okay, I know this is probably the last thing any of you want to do right now." The Twi-lek said, eyes flitting between them and the half-rebuilt Chopper. "And I'm sure a prison break is most likely considered insane at a time like this, but if we want to strike back against the Empire in a way they won't forget, this is what we need to do." They all perked up instantly at that, seeing as there was nothing any of them wanted to do more in that moment, then to mess with the Empire.

"Kanan, open the file we got." Hera said, pressing the 'play' button on the ship's viewing panel. The sudden image of a building came up, and from what he could see, it looked to be an Imperial prison. There were entry routes mapped out, and exit points indicated, as if someone had been observing the building's layout. And someone had, Kaveh-their contact-had probably drawn this up for them, knowing that they'd take this information and go a step further.

"This file's got the whole structure of base 49, the Imperial prison, laid out. All we need to do is strategize," Kanan said before moving to click to another file. "And this-" he added, as the picture of a young female human popped up in front of them, "is the person we're breaking out."

The cockpit was quiet for a few minutes, as everyone took everything in and processed it. Sabine-as usual-was the first to break the silence, "who is she?" The mandelorian asked, causing Kanan and Hera to exchange secretive looks with each other. "Guys," Sabine spoke again. "You gotta be honest with us, plus I'm not breaking someone out of jail if I don't know so much as their name."

Hera nodded right away, completely agreeing with her. "Your right, so right. You should know," she then turned to Kanan. "They should know," she said to him this time. The Jedi's face darkened, but only for a moment, as if he were reliving something terrible.

"Okay, her name is Clarissa Reed," he said, without adding anything else. Zeb waited a few seconds, but when Kanan didn't continue, the lasat got impatient. "And? What's so special about her? C'mon, throw me a bone! I'm dying here!"

Another troubled look crossed the man's face, "and..." he continued, his voice pained, as if he was having difficulty just getting the words out. "She's a Jedi, one I used to know."

That seemed to shut both Zeb and Sabine up, which was rare, cause nothing ever seemed to shut them up. In fact, it shut the whole room up, even the noises from outside the ship seemed to stop in shock as well. And for the first time since entering the cockpit, Ezra was completely and totally focused. The haze that had seemed to be clouding his mind all day disappeared, he'd never felt more awake, it was as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on him.

And surprisingly, he was the first to recover from his initial shock. "Could you elaborate please?" He said, trying to keep from screaming as the frustration in him built. "How do you know her?"

Hera and Kanan shared another secretive look, and damn was Ezra sick of secrets. "I'm out of here," he huffed, getting out of his seat and fleeing the cockpit before anyone could protest or call him back. "I need air," he said to himself as he neared the hangar door. He opened it with a wave of his hand, and exited, not bothering to close it behind him.

_'They'll notice it's open eventually'_, the lighter voice in his head said. _'But still, it wasn't very nice to just leave like that'_. _'Why should he care?' _The darker voice piped up, _'they keep things from him and then expect him to be nice? Those people are hypocrites!'_

And for the first time, since the voices had started, Ezra found himself liking them. It made him feel as if there was someone else there, like even when he was alone, he was never _actually alone_. _'Don't worry, as long as I'm here, you'll never be alone.'_ The darker voice said gleefully, while it seemed the lighter one had disappeared altogether. Not that it mattered to him, Ezra liked this voice better anyway.

And maybe talking to himself wasn't so crazy after all, it wasn't like he was losing his mind...right? Besides, his friends were too busy with their own problems to worry about his, at least like this, he had someone to talk to, even if that someone was himself.

Suddenly, the sound of blaster fire pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked up at the sky, where the outline of a TIE could be seen. The fighter was shooting at something, though he couldn't see what. _'Go check it out,'_ the grim voice ordered. _'It can't hurt, right?'_

_'Right,' _Ezra agreed, though something inside him shouted at him not to listen. But he did anyway, because it _couldn't hurt_. And because he didn't want to head back to the ship just yet, where Kanan and Hera would probably reprimand him for leaving like a little kid.

He wasn't a little kid, they needed to see that. _'Focus,'_ the voice told him._ 'Think about those two liars later, go after the TIE,'_ _'right...sorry.' _Ezra apologized, before shaking the frustrated thoughts out of his head.

He took off in the direction the TIE had been heading, hoping to find where it landed and see what the Imperials were up to.

* * *

><p>He spotted the fighter a little while later, it had landed in the middle of the mandelorian marketplace. A whole horde of bucket heads were protecting it, making him wonder what cargo could be so precious to warrant that many guards. It wasn't even one of the bigger ships, just a regular TIE fighter, nothing special about it.<p>

Or at least, that's what he thought, until the Inquisitor himself stepped out of it. A tiny gasp managed to escape Ezra's lips, and he had to cover his mouth with his hands to keep from screaming.

The man seemed to pause in his stride for a moment, and Ezra was scared that he'd heard him. But then he continued on like nothing had happened, barking orders as he walked away from the ship. The storm troopers went with him, leaving the TIE abandoned.

Suddenly, an genius idea struck Ezra as he crouched behind a crate near the ship. _'A TIE carries spare parts with it all the time, in case it breaks down...maybe...just maybe...it'll have the parts we need.'_ _'That's brilliant kid,'_ the voice congratulated him. _'Your way smarter than any of those rebels give you credit for, it's no surprise you survived that long on your own.'_

A smile found it's way to his face at the complement, but something about it wasn't right...alarm bells were going off in his head, but he chose to ignore them. Besides, it was true, his friend's never really gave him credit for how street smart he was.

_'But that doesn't matter now, getting those parts is all that matters.'_ _'Right,'_ _'go make me proud.' _And he would, it'd feel good to finally have someone proud of him, even if it was just all in his head. So, without drawing any attention to himself, he snuck his way aboard the TIE. Cutting the alarm wires like Zeb had showed him, before sitting behind the pilot's chair.

Okay, the ship needed new parts for the engine. A new motor, an axial compressor...a nozzle that would conserve fuel more...that was about it. Luckily, the world had decided to cut him a break, because everything he needed, he found in the spare parts compartment.

A huge smile broke out on his face, but before he could celebrate, his happiness was shattered by the sound of the Inquisitor approaching._ 'Oh no,'_ he thought to himself, _'God no...'_ _'get out! Don't get caught! Go around the right side, he won't see you!'_ The voice shouted into his head, causing it to throb and hurt.

But he listened to it, sliding out of the pilot's seat as fast as he could, the parts in hand, before making a beeline for the nearest building to hide behind. He went around the right side of the TIE, like he was told, and it worked, baldy didn't see him. Unfortunately, another stroke of bad luck hit, because he couldn't find a building to make a beeline for. So instead he hid behind a nearby dumpster, hoping the Inquisitor wouldn't find him, and that the smell wouldn't kill him.

Thankfully, baldy didn't notice anything different. And for that, he breathed a long sigh of relief. But then, just as he was about to ditch the dumpster and crawl his way back to the ship, something made him stop. The sound of the Inquisitor's maniacal laughter made him stop dead, why was he laughing?_ 'Listen and find out!'_ The voice re-appeared, even darker than before. So he did, squishing himself against the disgusting dumpster, he listened to the discussion happening between the Inquisitor and...agent Kallus.

"Everything's in place," Kallus said. 'While you managed to distract the rebels, I set project Doomsday in place. They won't know what hit them," "excellent." The Inquisitor's smooth, ominous voice responded. "During the chase, we managed to blast one of their engines, as planned. Everything's going as planned, three of our pieces are exactly where they should be."

"But what about the droid?" Kallus inquired, peeking Ezra's interest. "Did you reprogram him?" "Yes, I short-circuited his hard drive. He should move our next piece into place for us." "And what about the rebels? You don't expect them to retaliate?" "Oh, I know they will. But hopefully, the droid will wipe them out for us." "But what about the padawan?"

Ezra's breath hitched in his throat, "I took care of that too. Since I couldn't meet with him in person, I programmed the droid to deliver him to us, then the real plan begins. Nevertheless, let's be off. I've got urgent business on Tatooine."

They both stopped talking, and the next thing he knew, the fighter was gone. But he could care less about that right now, cause a million new things were now running through he head.

_'That's why the Inquisitor hadn't destroyed Chopper's hard drive, because it was all part of his plan. Dear God, Hera was rebuilding him right now! Would the droid hurt them? No, no, no, no, no, no!'_ He had to get back to the ship, right now.

He started running, pushing himself harder than he ever had before. His adrenaline running high, his lungs barely getting any air, his heart felt like it was going to explode. But nothing else mattered at that moment, besides getting to the ship and warning his friend's about the trap that had been set.

Time seemed to slow down as he neared the ship, the parts he'd stolen, still in his hands. The hangar door was still open, no one had closed it, and this only caused him to worry even more.

Speeding in, he dropped the parts on the floor, before heading towards the cockpit. "GUYS!" He called, shoving the door open. "Chopper's been-" the word 'hardwired' died on his lips as his eyes swept through the room, it was empty.

In fact, searching the whole ship, he found it entirely empty, his friends were no where to be found. "Oh God no..." he muttered to himself, using all of his strength to keep from crying.

This game he was playing, had turned deadly really fast.


	5. Chapter 5: Alone

**Disclaimer: I don't own star wars rebels, I'm not that lucky.**

_'Never thought I'd be the one on my back doing this...'_ Ezra thought to himself, lying flat under_ the Ghost's_ control panel, trying to fix the damage. But hey, if he didn't do it, how would he ever find his friends? _'If they're not dead yet...no.' _He couldn't think like that_, _because if he did, he'd have nothing to keep him going. Besides, his friends had gotten out of way stickier situations, and anyway, what was the worst the Inquisitor could do to them?

_'Kill them, torture them, tear apart their minds, manipulate them into killing each other, have them viciously mauled by a group of fyrnocks...'_

Okay, so there was a lot the Inquisitor could do to them, Ezra would have to find them fast, but he could only do that if he fixed the ship. Which he probably wasn't doing right, man, Chopper or Hera had always taken care of this sort of thing, what did he know about repairing engines and rebooting thrusters? Nothing, absolutely nothing, but hey, if he could fix the hyperspace mechanism, he could do this too...right?

He snapped the spare nozzle he's stolen into place, using a flat-head screw driver to tighten it when he should've used a Philips head. Then, he proceeded to the back of the ship, where the broken engine still sat awaiting repair. He changed the old broken motor, for the one he'd swiped, using the wrong end of the hammer to tap it into place. Finally, he installed the new axial compressor, using a pair of pliers too small for the job. Well, it was obvious as Hell he would never be a handyman...not that he wanted to be one anyway.

After finishing, he washed away the grease he'd gotten on his face, then returned to the cockpit. As he sat down in the pilot's chair, he sent out a quick prayer,_ 'Hera, if you can hear me, I am so sorry...please don't kill me.'_ With that, he pressed the ignition button on the ship's control panel, gripped the wheel tightly, and shut his eyes.

When he heard the sound of the engines roaring to life, his heart did a couple of flips in his chest. _'Yes!' _He cheered to himself, loosening his grip on the wheel. Now he could get to doing what he did best, causing trouble and raising Hell for the Empire.

He was tired of just sitting around, Mandelor was a nice planet, but he could only stand staying in the same place for so long. Besides, he had his crew to find, a score to settle and a need to make any Imperial suffer.

Going over his plan in his head, he found a billion things wrong with it, number one being that he wasn't even sure his friends _were_ on Tatooine. The only thing he did know, was that they weren't on board, and they weren't on Mandelor. He'd practically torn the ship apart looking for them, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they were all playing some sick joke on him.

But when his eyes had come across yet another white note, this time in his room, he didn't even have to read it to know what it said. Though, he'd gone ahead and read it anyway, just to torture himself a little bit more.

_I ordered the droid to leave this for you, just in case you wanted to know the score. If your reading this, I take it you do. So, here it is. I just took your knight, hurry and make your next move before I take your bishop too, young padawan. -The Inquisitor_

Yeah, it had been longer than the first one, and it might've brought some tears to his eyes, but also, it had made him remember something. Something he'd forgotten between running back to the ship in a daze, and nearly having a mental breakdown.

The Inquisitor had told agent Kallus that he had urgent business to attend to on Tatooine, which is why, Ezra was heading there right now. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he had. He _needed_ to find his friends before anything else happened to them, and this was the only lead he had.

So, he plugged in the hyperspace coordinates for the desert planet, and was off before he could change his mind.

* * *

><p>He landed on the planet an hour later, mentally punishing himself for taking so many wrong turns on his way there. Reminding himself that just because he wore a pilot's clothing, it didn't make him a expert pilot.<p>

But at the moment, his rookie piloting skills should be the last thing on his mind. So, shaking his head, he emptied it of all excess thoughts. Focusing on preparing for what he was about to do. Grab the Empire's attention, capture an Imperial, get info on the Inquisitor, and if baldy was on Tatooine, he'd get his location.

Grabbing his lightsaber, his slingshot, two blasters, one of Sabine's bombs, and some extra blaster fire, he exited the ship. Once he was out, he activated _the Ghost's_ invisibility mode, not wanting any ships flying overhead to spot it.

Though, whether he hid the ship or not, every Imperial would know he was here anyway. That was what he was counting on, what his whole horrible plan was counting on, his ability to grab the Empire's attention.

Yup, what he was attempting, was freakin' suicidal, but he was gonna go through with it anyway, because he was desperate...and maybe a little insane. His insanity aside though, he was almost 100% sure he wasn't gonna survive this.

All by himself, all _alone_. This was crazy, bordering on downright self-destructive. And_,_ maybe he was a_ little_ self-destructive at the moment, but could anyone blame him? Hell no, he had a right to feel the tiniest bit depressed.

After all, there was a good chance that this was all some wild goose chase, that his friends weren't even here, and that he was wasting his time and endangering his own life for nothing.

The Inquisitor might not even be on Tatooine, for all he knew, the Inquisitor was in a totally different galaxy. Thousands of miles away from Tatooine, which made him feel even worse about his quarter baked plan.

But hey, if he had a nickel for every doubt he had at the moment, he'd be rich, but like hell would he let that stop him now. Besides, his self-doubts weren't of any importance to him anyway, they could go damn themselves for all he cared. Worries and concerns weren't necessary at this point, because if he dwelled on his flawed plan for too long, he'd chicken out and leave.

And if there was one thing he knew about himself, it was that he was no chicken or coward. Fight or flight had never really been a choice he'd had to debate, because when Ezra truly did care about something-or someone-he fought for them. And as rare as it was for him to care about anyone else other than himself, Kanan, Hera, Zeb, Sabine and Chopper had managed to break down his walls.

In fact, it almost made him smile, remembering the day he'd fully joined their crew. It was one of his happier days, before the Inquisitor had come and ruined it all. God, did he hate him. In fact, Ezra hated the Inquisitor more than he hated anyone else. He'd rather be locked in a room with a thousand storm troopers, than the Inquisitor.

_'But that's not important,'_ Ezra reminded himself. _'Getting to my friends is, so I better hurry up.'_ _'Whoa, take it easy kid. You won't be much help to your friends if you end up dying of physical exertion before you even get to them.'_ _'They need me-'_ _'so do I. I need you to remain calm and clear headed, cause if you run into this with your adrenaline pumping and your head spinning, you'll never save you friends. So take your damn time. Think.'_

Think. Think. Think. Think. Think. God, his head hurt too damn much to think! It felt like his brain was fried, between his own screwed up mind, and the voice tearing it apart even more, he couldn't even function. _'I'm trying to think,'_ Ezra responded mentally. _'But screaming into my head doesn't help.' 'Oh, excuse me then. Please, go ahead and forget me. I'm just trying to make sure you live through this, cause the way your headed, it's a really dark road.' _

Like he wasn't heading down a dark enough road already, jeez, what else could the world throw at him? _'Just focus on the mission, and stop being a smartass, also, turn around. Tatooine's marketplace is in the other direction genius, and if there are any Imperials on this planet, they'll be there. Imposing new taxes, or raising the price on living.'_

_'Just shut up,' _Ezra shook his head, as if he could shake the voice out. He wished he could, but sadly, whoever controlled the universe had decided that his current suffering wasn't enough. Whoever decided that, was too cruel. Nevertheless, the voice did shut up. As it always did when he told it to, though usually after a few minutes, it would return, even more opinionated.

Not that he'd be completely against that, after all, he'd take anything over being totally alone. Besides, most of the time, the voice would help him out. Tell him what to do, or steer him in the right direction. Like telling him he was going in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go, it was like having someone else really there with him.

Even though he knew it was all in his head, that he was totally off the wall crazy. But at this very second, crazy was working perfectly for him. His craziness aside however, he really did have to hurry the hell up. Well...without running into anything half-cocked, even though that was precisely his plan.

* * *

><p>"My knees are fucking cramping," Ezra mumbled to himself, as he bent behind a dumpster near a ship landing port. <em>'Suck it up,'<em> the voice fired back. _'A bucket head is bound to come eventually, be patient.'_ "God, now your starting to sound like Kanan, the amount of damn times I've heard one of his 'patience' speeches is-" _'enough about the Jedi! Pay attention, a TIE just landed on the docking port behind you.'_

Ezra whipped his head around, craning his neck to get a better view of the fighter that had just landed. "God, there have to be at least a dozen Imperials backing that TIE up, two more fighters and a bigger ship just landed."

_'Makes you wonder what they're carrying...'_ the voice added, "yeah." Ezra whispered back, "the last time I saw a TIE that heavily guarded was when...oh God." He sucked in a ragged breath, his brain putting the pieces together, "that's the TIE the Inquisitor left Mandelor on." _'Don't stop there,'_ the voice spoke again. _'Your so close to piecing everything together kid, so keep connecting those dots.'_

At first, Ezra was confused, until he remembered the last thing the Inquisitor had said to agent Kallus back on Mandelor.

_"I took care of that too. Since I couldn't meet with him in person, I programmed the droid to deliver him to us."_

_'Deliver him to us, in other words, get me to him.' _His throat nearly closed up as the realization hit him full force, and for a second he thought he'd pass out.

It had worked, the Inquisitor's plan had worked. Ezra was there, Chopper had, in a way, delivered him to the Inquisitor.

_ 'So he knew I was there, on Mandelor, baldy knew I was listening in to his conversation with Kallus, he knew I'd go after my friends. And that it would lead me here, straight to him and his waiting army of bucket heads...that big ship that just landed...it's a transport ship...a prisoner transport ship. And I guess that makes me prisoner number 1...' 'Good job kid, congratulations for figuring out his game. But instead of lying behind this dumpster curled up in a fetal position, I'd get up and turn around. The king himself is right behind you, and he doesn't have to move one space at a time.'_

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. _'Please don't let him be standing right behind me...'_ Ezra gulped slightly as he stood, and turned around. The first thing he processed, was that he was staring into a pair of golden rimmed eyes.

"Look at that agent Kallus, the boy's here, right on time. I guess the real plan can begin with his capture, now." And before Ezra could even assess any of what the Inquisitor had just said, blasters were going off.

The Inquisitor swiftly moved back as the shooting began, behind the line of fire, disappearing like he'd never even been there. _'What the hell? Why would he just leave?' 'NOT IMPORTANT, DUCK.'_ The voiced screamed at him, just as a shot was aimed at his head.

He barely managed to dodge it, dropping to his knees in a tuck-and-roll. He slid behind a nearby building, climbing it's wall and hiding on the roof as the swarm of bucket heads ran past.

Dear God, those were a lot of Imperials, and he was just one person, they'd surround him in seconds if he didn't think of something._ 'Wait, kid. Look, over at that ship, do you see that?'_ _'See what?'_ Ezra thought back, squinting at the biggest ship on the landing port. _'Look at the writing on it's hull,'_ the voice urged. _'What writing? All I see are numbers, 49. And there's a b in front of them, but what does that-WAIT._' Maybe b stood for base, as in base 49. The Imperial prison, that ship must be one of theirs.

Meaning the Inquisitor hadn't just tried to capture him, no, he'd also wanted to transport him to one of the worst Imperial prisons there was. _'Wow, I'm so flattered that baldy thinks I'm that much of a threat.'_ Ezra mused to himself, before re-focusing on the ship.

_'Hold on, wasn't base 49 the prison Kanan wanted us to break into? Where there was a Jedi prisoner? What was her name? Clarissa Reed? Kanan knew her, at least, that's what he said. Maybe she knew him, maybe she could...'_ Ezra's thought trailed off, as another great idea struck him. _'Maybe she could help me find him. And the rest of my friends, after all, she must hate the Empire as much as we do, this could work.'_

A sense of excitement filled him as he mulled over the details of his newly forming plan in his head, his hope levels going higher and higher with every passing minute. _'This is gonna work',_ he sighed in finality, before glancing over the roof's edge again.

_'Okay, new plan. Step one, hide the weapons I'm carrying.'_ Which would be easy, his lightsaber fit in his back pocket, and the bomb fit in his pant pocket. His slingshot could be hidden under his sleeve but the blasters would have to go though, seeing as there was nowhere he could hide them. Besides, if the Imperials found weapons on him, they wouldn't be suspicious as to why he'd give himself up so easily.

Which is step two, to give himself up so they'd take him to base 49, where he'd initiate his master plan. _'Baldy, you don't know it yet, but I'm gonna blow up your chess board.'_

A grin found it's way to his face, his first _real_ grin a while. _'Stop standing there and smiling like an idiot, you fool. Move.'_ The voice returned, and with a deep breath, Ezra jumped off the roof's ledge. Right where every storm trooper could see him, where they could shoot at him.

But he didn't care, because this was exactly what he wanted. Of course, he had to make it look believable, pretending to put up a fight, pretending to be pissed about getting shot at, but eventually, he let himself get caught.

"Alright, kid. Hand over those blasters, both of 'em. I have no idea what you were trying to go, but this was damn suicidal, no one ever gets away from the Empire." The lead bucket head told him, his voice so arrogant that Ezra wanted to cut off his freakin' tongue. "Go ahead, guys. Take him away, he'll pay for going against the Empire."

_'No,'_ Ezra thought to himself, _'you'll pay. That's right, I'm gonna set your fuckin' flag on fire.'_ Damn did he wish he could say that out loud, just to see the reaction it would cause. _'Stick to the plan,'_ he repeated inwardly. _'Stick to the plan, these bucket heads will get there's eventually.' _Oh, and they would, Ezra would make sure of that.

A rough nudge from one of the storm trooper's restraining him, shook him out of his thoughts. With a fake snarl, Ezra allowed them to load him onto the ship like he was some kind of cargo. In a cage, they locked him up, and he could bet that under their helmets, they were smirking.

_'Oh yeah, you smile for now. Enjoy it as much as you possibly can, because the second we land, this ship is going up in flames.'_ A smile resembling the Inquisitor's found its way to his face, _'along with the rest of your stupid Empire.'_


	6. Chapter 6: Imprisoned

**Disclaimer: Star wars rebels doesn't belong to me, Disney owns the rights.**

_'Let the guards lead me to wherever they have to, knock them out once we're there, get schematics of all the cell blocks, find Clary without getting spotted, break out without getting killed, and finally find a ship to get back to Tatooine with.'_ Yeah, his plan could be a little more detailed, but frankly, he couldn't give a damn._ 'Just get the job done'_, Ezra told himself. _'Everything's gotta be fine eventually, my bad luck can't hold up forever...right? No-wait, it could hold up forever.'_

Jeez, why did the world always have to pick on him? What had he done to warrant this? Was it karma? For always poking fun of Zeb, or threatening to dismantle Chopper, or endlessly flirting with Sabine, or giving Kanan such a hard time during training, or even bugging Hera for a chance to fly the ship? Or was it just because life was too fucked up in that particular way?

Ezra had absolutely no clue, but while being transported to base 49, he had a hell of a lot of time to come up with one. Never mind the fact that his mind seemed to be in overdrive twenty-four-seven, Ezra had plenty of time to think...about anything really.

The number one thing on his mind being, the location of his friends. _'Is it possible the Inquisitor imprisoned my friends on base 49 like he's planning on doing to me?'_ His thoughts had generally floated in that direction, giving him a moment of false hope, then, sweet logic had kicked in, saying _'are you nuts? The Inquisitor isn't a moron, why would he ever-intentionally or otherwise-trap you and Kanan in the same place when he knows you guys could easily come up with an escape plan because of your bond? Your friends are probably in a totally different system, definitely not anywhere even remotely close to the hell hole your being sent to'._

And there had gone that hope, that hope that maybe finding his friends would be easier than he'd thought, but hey, when was anything in his life ever easy? Also, speaking of Ezra and Kanan's bond, it had gone numb. Ezra had attempted to connect to Kanan through the Force, hoping to contact him mentally, but all he'd felt in return was blankness.

Meaning only three things could've happened, one-Kanan was unconscious, two-someone (most likely the Inquisitor) had damaged their bond, or three-that Kanan was dead. And since he wasn't going to accept that last possibility until he saw Kanan's dead body himself, Ezra went with the assumption that Kanan was unconscious somewhere.

And again, another one of his hope's had gone out the window, with the other one. At this rate, he was getting more and more self-destructive by the minute. Next thing he knew, he'd be jumping off the ledge of a high rooftop. _'Don't talk suicidal kid, you'll find your friends eventually. I know you will, you just need a little help to do it, which is why your trying to find this Clary chick.'_

_'Well excuse me for getting a little...crazy, because I have every right to be! I already lost my parent's! I can't lose my new family too!' 'And you won't, not on my watch.' 'Easy for you to say, your just a disembodied voice that I listen to, some figment of my imagination that my mind created so I wouldn't feel alone or go berserk.' 'And yet, you found a way to go berserk anyway.' 'Oh, shut up will you-' _

Ezra was rudely pulled out of his thoughts a few seconds later, by the ship coming to an abrupt halt, mid-air._ 'The hell is happening?' _Ezra asked himself, _'are we already there? Is it time to execute Order Jail Break yet?'_ Yeah, he knew it was a horrible codename, but he didn't care.

Suddenly, a bucket head appeared next to his cage, without his bucket on. A smirk was on the dark skinned man's face, probably happy he'd caught the 'rebel scum'. _'Enjoy the happiness while it lasts buddy,'_ Ezra had to refrain from smiling. _'Cause it's all going down hill from here,'_ that is, if his plan went accordingly...which it usually never did.

"Out of the cage kid," the man said roughly, unlocking Ezra's cell door with a resonating click. Not able to contain it anymore, Ezra's face finally gave way to a smile as he stepped out of his cage, hands outstretched, eagerly awaiting the man the put the handcuffs on him. The trooper seemed startled for a moment, as if wondering why a prisoner would be even the slightest bit happy to be cuffed.

And his sickening smile, Ezra knew he should try to hide it, but it was almost impossible. Truth be told, he was almost giddy with excitement just at the prospect of pulling the stunt he was planning. But the trooper didn't have to know that, so working extra hard, he forced a look of indifference back on his face.

"Now, hands behind your back," complying, Ezra felt his wrists burn where the cuffs were placed. He hissed in pain as the man twisted his arm back a little more, struggling to bind both his hands together.

_'God, I wish I could just punch him right in his smarmy little face-,' 'well you can't.' 'Why not? He doesn't have his helmet on! It'd be so easy-' 'and it would ruin everything. Keep your emotions under-wraps for now, later on you can use them.' 'Wait...what?'_

A sudden noise to his left pulled him out of his jumbled thoughts, as three more troopers joined the one who'd handcuffed him. Re-focusing on reality, Ezra tuned in on their conversation, and apparently, he'd already missed half of it, so he only got snippets and pieces of what was being discussed. "-bring him to cell block D," one of them said. "Solitary confinement?" Another questioned, "jeez, he must've done something really bad."

"Hey, it's not my place to ask, I'm just following orders." The one who's spoken first lifted his hands up in surrender, "yeah, but who's orders?" "Kallus'," he responded dryly. Of course, of course it was agent Kallus. _'He just really hates my guts, doesn't he? Stupid moron has to be in the middle of everything where I'm concerned.'_

"So yeah, take him to the east wing, more guards will be there to take him to cell afterwards." "Roger that," and with that said, two more bucket heads grabbed him by his aching arms, and began half-dragging him towards the scariest building he's probably ever seen. _'That's weird...I hadn't even noticed we'd landed...'_ damn, he must've been more in his head than he'd thought.

_'God, if I could get a grip on reality right now, I'd choke it.'_ Now, that'd be satisfying, seeing as choking something would really help his sanity levels right now. _'Focus,_' he chided himself. _'You can choke anyone you want later on, but not now.'_ But it was oh so tempting, and it'd be so freakin' easy...but he digressed.

"Whoa, hey, why's he smiling?" He heard one of the troopers who was dragging him say to the other, "I don't know." The second one said, "but it's freaking me out." Oh damn, was he smiling again? Shit, no, God no, he had to act like he was scared for his life.

He forced the wide grin back, his mouth forming a grimace in it's place. "That's better," the same bucket head said in relief. "It's time you know who runs the galaxy around here kid, you should be scared." Oh yeah, he was shitting his pants in fear..._not_. Besides, what did this loser run? All he was, was agent Kallus' lackey, so he could shove it for all Ezra cared.

"Alright, here." The two men handed him over to a trio of armed Imperial prison guards, like he was some kind of baton, "he's your problem now." And with that, both bucket heads walked away. "Good, now, take him down to the lower levels. Cell block D, got it?" The one who seemed to be in charge told the other two, who in response nodded.

'Idiots,' Ezra groaned. "They think I'm so harmless that they only send two guards to accompany me? Whoa, that really hurts my feelings.' Nevertheless, he allowed the two dumbasses to believe they had him right where they wanted him. He could pretend to be the terrified prisoner, he could play the part but only until they got to cell block D.

_'Then all I have to do is find a schematics of the building, and then this 'harmless delinquent' act can end.'_ And then, as if the world was trying to make it up to him for screwing him over once too many times, he noticed that the guard to his right had the building schematics right _there_ in his left pocket.

_'Now that is way too convenient,'_ Ezra thought to himself. Was this a trap? Could the Inquisitor suddenly read his mind now? Know what he was planning then have warned everyone in advance while he'd been being transported over here?_ 'No,'_ the voice replied._ 'It isn't possible, not unless you go letting him into your head, he can't read your mind.'_

_'But it's not possible that I'm this lucky-' 'yes it is, think about it, not even the Inquisitor can anticipate your every move. And like you said before, your bad luck couldn't have help up forever, could it? Just take the chance? Jump your opportunity!' 'That sounds so bad-' 'stop thinking dirty! You know what I meant!' 'Alright!'_

Ezra internally sighed, praying that this wasn't some trick, that this was all really some miracle. Then suddenly, his eyes drifted down to wear he'd hidden Sabine's bomb. _'That's it! That's what I need right now! A miracle!'_

A ghoulish smile light up his entire face, and he made absolutely no attempt to hide it this time. "Hey, why's the prisoner-oomph!" Ezra cut the man off with a swift kick to his gut, sending him stumbling back. Just because he couldn't use his arms, didn't mean he couldn't use his legs.

"Hey-!" The other guard restraining him cried, about to pull out his blaster, but Ezra silenced him quickly, with a low swooping kick that knocked him off his feet, then Ezra proceeded to kick the fallen man square in the face, efficiently knocking him out. Then, he turned back to the other man, who'd regained his composure, and was coming back at him with Taser gun. Rolling his eyes, Ezra moved to head-butt him, then with his elbows, he brought the man down in a flash.

_'They really need to up their training'_, he mused to himself. _'Even without using my arms, I'm better than them.'_ Or maybe it was just the adrenaline pumping through his system at the moment that was giving him lightening fast reflexes, though he really didn't care.

So, without wasting any time, he bent down on all fours, finding the keys to unlock his cuffs, and then discarding them. Proceeding to hide the bodies of the guards where no one would find them, he grabbed the schematics, a pass card to unlock all the cells and then he was off down the hall.

* * *

><p>"God damn it!" Ezra muttered to himself, "why do there have to be so many halls? And why do they all have to look the same?"<em> 'Because it's a jail?'<em> The voice suggested sarcastically, _'oh shut up,'_ Ezra responded. _'You try reading these schematics, they're so confusing!' 'Well then don't focus on the halls! Focus on the blocks! The cell blocks!'_ Ezra arched a brow, before turning the schematics over in his hands.

_'Cell block C is highlighted, as well as D, which is where they wanted to take me.' 'Exactly,'_ the voice replied proudly. _'They're solitary confinement cells, that's where all the big offenders-like you-end up. So, if this Clary chick is a Jedi, she'd be there too-wouldn't she?' 'Oh my God,'_ Ezra slapped his hand to his forehead, berating himself for not figuring it out in the first place.

_'There we go, you get it now?_' _'Yes, I get it now,'_ Ezra sighed, running a hand through his messed up hair, before turning down the hallway he'd just come. _'Wait-'_ he suddenly remembered something, _'which block would she be in then? C or D? They're both highlighted!'_ _'Gee, I don't know-which one do you think they'd put you in? The same block as her-another Jedi-or one on the other side of the prison...hmmm?'_ _'Ugh...she's in cell block C then,' 'there we are...now get moving you idiot.' _

_'I'm not an idiot,'_ Ezra grumbled to himself, running down the next hallway, following the map in his hands. And pretty soon, he saw a sign pointing down a narrow stairway, it read, 'Cell Block C'. _'Perfect,'_ he smiled to himself, his right hand letting go of the map to curl around the small bomb still in his pocket. _'Now, here's where I need a miracle to come in.'_

Pulling out the bomb, and mentally thanking Sabine for making them, he pressed the trigger and threw it down the hallway he'd just came-opposite the stairway leading to cell block C. He then hid himself behind the door leading to the fire escape landing, using the shadows as cover. The explosion that came next, almost made him want to dance in glee. And the amount of bucket heads that ran up the staircase from cell block C to see what was going on in D, had him internally cheering.

Now that all the storm troopers were out of block C, he could go search it without fear of being seen-thank you again Sabine for the distraction. Sliding out from his hiding spot behind the door, he slipped down the staircase and followed the empty hallway all the way to where the cells were located.

No storm troopers were there, they'd all gone to see where that explosion had come from, which had left the computer center free for him to use. His smile widening even more, he plopped down into the chair in front of the computer, clicking through prisoner files until he found the one he was looking for.

_'Clarissa Lauren Reed, born June 21st, in the year 2000. Whoa, she's my age...and that's pretty young...makes me wonder how old she was when they locked her up here...wait...no...don't get distracted.'_ Shaking his head, he told himself that her age wasn't important, all that mattered was her knowledge.

So, scrolling down her file for a little while longer, he found out which cell she was in, C14. Swinging his legs off the chair, he walked through the cell block calmly, like he owned the place. Twelve, thirteen...fourteen, ah...this is it.

He found her cell quickly enough, almost immediately recognizing her as the girl in the picture Kanan had showed him back on _the Ghost_. Except she looked way prettier in person than in her file, her file picture didn't do her justice at all. In fact, Ezra thought to himself, she was the second most beautiful girl he'd ever seen...after Sabine of course.

She had extremely long platinum blonde-almost white hair, and it was tied in a long, loose braid cascading over her shoulder. And her face, looked like it had been chiseled out of stone, perfect, angular, proportionate, and her cheekbones-damn. She was tanned too, her skin the same color as Kanan's. And obviously, she was human, like him.

She was sitting down now, so he couldn't really see how tall she was, but she looked about Sabine's height. However, while her face said she could be a princess, her clothes had 'rebel' written all over them. Ripped black leggings, that looked so tight they could've been a second skin. Black ankle boots that matched, laced-up as if she was ready to run at a moment's notice.

Her shirt, was a dark blue, and if possible, it was tighter and more ripped than her pants. And on top of that, she wore a worn out black jacket. But despite how extraordinary she looked, it wasn't her looks that captivated him-it was her eyes.

Kanan had said she was a Jedi, but her eyes, they weren't the cerulean blue a Jedi's should be, hers were green. Or hazel, but nonetheless, they were beautiful. The only weird thing about them though, was that there was a rim of gold around the irises. But Ezra told himself he was just imaging it, a trick of the light probably.

"Um...can I help you?" Her soft voice snapped him out of his daze, then, it launched him into another one, dear God, her voice was so smooth, like honey. She sounded like an angel, and looked like one too, and if he wasn't already head-over-heels for someone else, he would've said a cheesy pick-up line right about then.

But since he was, he kept it normal. "Hi...um, Clary?" Her eyes immediately hardened as he spoke her name, like he'd just slapped her. "No one's called me Clary in a long time. Usually it's Clarissa, or 'hey you!' Stop screaming! Your a prisoner here, so do as we ask!" Holy Hell, and she was sarcastic too.

"Yeah well...I'm not a guard," Ezra said sheepishly. "I kinda figured, seeing as your wearing a pilot's suit. And well...your Force signature is really strong, plus I can see the hilt of your lightsaber." Ezra's breath got caught in his throat, she could sense him? But why couldn't he sense her? "Because I'm masking my signature genius," she said sassily.

His eyes widened to the size of golf balls, "hey...wait a minute...did you just...read my mind?" Her expression turned amused, "no-I just anticipated your question by using my deck of Tarot cards and my crystal ball-of course I read you mind kid." Seriously, and she called him 'kid' too? He was her freakin' age!

"Which reminds me, how old are you anyway? And follow-up question, are you going to use that key ring to get me out of here or not?" Ezra, taken aback by her straightforwardness, nearly tripped on his own feet as he moved to open her cell. "Um...I'm ah...15 yrs. old-" "cool, your my age." "Uh...yeah, and I...I came here to rescue you-" "that info. wasn't needed, I kinda guessed, but okay, thanks."

His head spinning, Ezra could barely keep up with her as she moved away from her cell at an almost inhuman pace, heading down the hall. "Wait!" He called, practically running to catch up with her. "What?" She turned around, hands on her hips.

"Can you...is it...how are...SLOW DOWN A MINUTE. God!" He finally managed to huff out, his voice strained and painful. Her expression immediately softened, and at the same time, he felt a slight shift in the Force. "Sorry, I almost forgot that you weren't there when Order 66 was executed, nor do you know me well at all, so I'll slow down for you. But if I get an impeding traffic ticket, it's your fault."

"Enough with the wit and sarcasm please!" Ezra begged, feeling like he was going to rip out his hair. "Oops, sorry again. Anyway, we can have a long powwow after we ditch this popsicle stand. But for now, until we do so, let's just give each other the benefit of the doubt, kay?"

Staring at her hard, Ezra nodded, not sensing anything off about her. Besides, if Kanan trusted her enough to have wanted to bust her out of this place, than Clary must've been really important. "Okay," he said warily. "But only if you stop masking your Force signature," "um...I already did...you know that shift in the Force you felt before? That's me," okay...wait a second...how did she know he'd felt a shift in the...never mind...he'd figure out her mind-reading abilities later.

"Oh...okay...sorry, I'm kinda knew at this," Ezra admitted sheepishly, reaching out with the Force at the same time to see how strong she was with it. And damn, now that she'd un-masked her signature, it was like a power overload. She was strong in the Force, very, very strong. Definitely stronger than he was, but he was still only learning after all.

"So, impressed?" She asked cockily, noticing his awestruck expression. "Totally," he responded, still in a haze. "Good, I love leaving a first impression, but we really should get going, so, let's move. And, I do trust that you've acquired a building schematic...right?"

Ezra smirked at her as they ran back up the staircase leading out of cell block C, "of course. I'm no amateur, I'm a rebel." "Already two things we have in common," Clary grinned widely, "I think I'm gonna like you, Ezra Bridger."


	7. Chapter 7: MIA

**Disclaimer: I do not own star wars rebels, would I be writing this if I did?**

"Your squishing me, stop." "I'm sorry, there's a horde of troopers passing by and if they see us-" "and also, you keep poking me with your ribs, cut it out." "It's called breathing, damn." Ezra swore under his breath, shooting the girl beside him an annoyed glare.

Squashed together behind a fire escape door, waiting for the long line of bucket heads crossing the corridor to pass them by, wasn't his ideal setting at the moment, and Clary just couldn't be more incredibly annoying. Not the 'I hate you' kind of annoying, more like, the pestering loud-mouthed sister kind of annoying.

However, despite her constant running commentary, he really liked her, _a lot_. Which said a lot about him, he'd only just met her, and already he adored her like a sister. But she was so easy to get along with, so much like Sabine. God, just thinking her name made him miss her so much, bringing him back to the reason why he was even doing this, to get her and the rest of his friends back.

And to accomplish that, he needed Clary and her freaky over the top Jedi powers. Although, he would've loved to spend time with her just kicking back and having a good time, you know, when there wasn't a metaphorical axe hanging over his friends heads.

"Hey, Ezra, they passed, they're gone now, c'mon." Clary slid passed him, and her voice was like a bucket of ice water being dumped over his head. Whoa, how deep in his thoughts had he been to not have noticed the troopers passing?

Gosh, these days, it seemed like he was disappearing into his head more and more all the time, but obviously, who could blame him for wanting a little reprieve from reality? Hell, anyone else would've probably lost their minds having to live the way he did, though since he was used to living like this, he could handle it. But damn, if Ezra could get a grip on reality right now, he'd choke it for being so cruel to him.

_'Focus,'_ the voice growled, _'Clary's already halfway down the next hallway, move'. 'Shit,'_ Ezra mentally cursed, speed-walking to catch up with the blonde ahead of him. "Alright," he sighed heavily once he'd caught up to her. "If I'm reading these schematics right, the back exit to this place, should be two hallways down. Then we can find the landing dock and get out of here."

Beside him, Clary nodded in understanding, her hair bouncing with every step she took. Having already explained his dilemma to her ahead of time, and giving her a brief summary of his half-lonely, half-suicidal life, she'd agreed to help him. He'd given her everything, his name, his background information and his connection to Kanan, the second she'd heard his master's name, she was all hands on deck.

And as it turns out, she was even less a fan of the Inquisitor than he was. She hated him, that much was obvious, but the extent of her hatred towards the man was infinite. She didn't just hate him, she abhorred him, or as she put it, 'he's the bane or my entire existence.'

So naturally, when she learned of the Inquisitor's part in this, she didn't even bother to ask anymore questions regarding the kidnapping matter, all she had to know was that in the end, she'd get to 'whip his ass', her exact words.

Then, since the ice was broken, they'd started bonding. Ezra realised that he and Clary had a lot in common, God, they were practically two peas in a pod, so alike they could be twins. She was wild at heart, loved taking risks, got an unlimited amount of joy from raising Hell for the Empire wherever she could, and, she was a Force user, a very skilled one at that.

In essence, she was perfect, and any normal person would've been all over her, but the peculiar thing about Ezra, he didn't want perfect. He wanted Sabine, who upstaged perfect and gave beauty a whole new meaning.

He'd told Clary about her, about each of his friends actually, even Chopper. Clary had looked overjoyed at the prospect of even meeting new people, even if one of them was a droid.

"They sound awesome," she'd said, "I can't wait to meet them." "And I can't wait to _find_ them," had been Ezra's response, causing his heart to lurch painfully, but if she noticed the expression of pain on his face, she didn't call him out on it, just quietly observed.

"Um...hey...Ezra?" Clary shook his arm suddenly, nearly making him jump out of his skin in surprise, shit, he'd disappeared into his head again. "Yeah?" He replied, finally noticing that they'd stopped in the middle of a random hallway. "Why are we stopped?" Clary bit her lip nervously, as if scared to say what she wanted to in fear that he'd snap at her.

"What? Just spit it out, I won't bite." "Well..." she trailed off, rubbing her arm anxiously. "It's just, okay, you see that room at the end of the hall?" Ezra turned away from her to look in the direction she was pointing in. Indeed, he saw a room at the end of the hall, a sign marked 'confiscations,' was glued to its door.

"Yeah, what about it? It's the room where they store-oh." Realisation dawned on him, his eyes traveling from the door, to the empty holster attached to Clary's pants, then back to the door. "Your lightsaber's in there," he sighed in anguish. "And let me guess, you want to make a pit stop for it?" The blonde nodded, "bingo. You want a cigar?"

Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, as he'd seen Kanan do on many occasions, but counting to ten didn't really work. "Okay," he huffed, "we'll stop for a second_-a second_-and get your lightsaber back, just...make sure no one spots us. Damn, this was going so well."

Clary rolled her emerald colored eyes, they twinkled in amusement. "Hey, if it was your lightsaber, you'd do the same. Besides, it's about time I reclaim what's rightfully mine, those morons took it away from me almost five years ago, it's been too long."

Ezra felt his eyes widen to the size of golf balls, "five years? Your mean they had you locked up here like an animal since age ten? What the Hell did you do that was so bad? You were just a kid," his disbelief caught her mildly off guard, breaking her composure for a few minutes.

"Listen, Ezra, I've been a rebel since Order 66 went down, since I was ripped away from everything I've ever known. When the stakes are this high, you do really bad things, and I've done my share. So, I could tell you what got me thrown in here, but trust me, if you knew, you wouldn't even be able to look at me."

With that, she walked straight past him and waltzed into the 'confiscations' room liked she owned the place-which is something he'd do. _"You wouldn't even be able to look at me,"_ her voice echoed through his head, it was the only thing he could focus on. Damn, what could she have done that was so bad? Heck, he'd down a shitload of bad things too, what made hers so immoral and wrong?

_'Who cares? Ask her later, after your in the clear, follow her, now. She might've run into a trooper or two, they might even be about to ring the alarm right now, go.' 'Right,'_ Ezra pushed all thoughts of immoral acts from his head, there was no need to obsess over them anyway._ 'No rest for the wicked, sorry, I forgot.'_

He stalked right up to the hard metal door, and slipped through it without a sound, checking the inside for any troopers before making his way to its center, where Clary was standing, riffling through a pile of junk. Most of it was junk anyway, sometimes good stuff would appear, and Ezra would pocket it, especially if there were any weapons.

Finally though, Clary found what she was looking for. It was a long-hilted lightsaber, more professional looking than his homemade one. "Ah, welcome back old friend." She smiled, brandishing it like the pro she was. "Okay, you got what you came for, now can we go?" Ezra whisper-shouted, eyes peeled and alert for the slightest sign of trouble.

"Yeah, just hold on a sec," she pressed the button on it's hilt, successfully activating it. At the sight of it, Ezra's mouth literally fell open, his jaw practically hitting the floor. Her lightsaber, while almost identical to Kanan's, had one obvious difference, it was blood red.

It could've been the Inquisitor's, Hell, they were exactly the same. "Uh...Clary?" Ezra spoke tentatively, "why is...could you maybe explain to me...the Hell...?" A small chuckle resonated throughout the dark room, "relax kid. It's not mine, I stole it, from the pasty grey monster himself."

Ezra suddenly felt relief spread though him, though it was short lived. "Wait...why would you-" "a month before I got thrown in here," she sighed, anticipating his question. "I broke into an Imperial transport vessel, to steal some battle station plans, and it just so happened that the Inquisitor was there. I ran into him as I was escaping, and we kinda clashed, I nearly died, and to make matters worse, he broke my lightsaber in the process."

Ezra felt his heart do a couple of honest to God backflips in his chest, his anxiety levels peaking. "It was like losing a part of me, after all, I'd had it for so long, so, as penance, I stole his lightsaber. I'd managed to knock it out of his hands while we fought, and well, let's just say, the Inquisitor never quite got over it."

_'Of course baldy didn't,'_ "oh God." Ezra spoke in a raspy voice, "Clary, I'm sorry." She shrugged casually, "it doesn't matter, this was a long time ago anyway, I got over it." _'No wonder you hate the Inquisitor so much,'_ Ezra wanted to say, but he couldn't find it in himself to speak.

"Now, story time's over," she swiped her hands across her eyes, where tears had began to form. "Let's get out of here, quick, before I puke." Ezra nodded, still a little in shock from hearing her story. "Okay, just let me check if the coast's clear first." Clary sent him a thumbs-up as he went, hastily pocketing her lightsaber and making after him.

He creaked open the door, scanned the empty hallways, then gave her a 'go' sign. Together, they made their way through the remaining maze-like hallways that stood between them and the back exit.

"I think I see it up ahead," Ezra called to his companion. "Just a little farther, then we're home free." Clary smiled happily at him, "thank God, first thing I'm going to do, is take a shower, even if I have to sneak into someone's house."

Ezra returned her almost giddy-like grin with a matching one of his own, finally something was going his way. Or at least, it was, until he eventually made it to the back exit door, and wrenched it open, only to be met with thousands of storm troopers looking back at him.

"Oh fuck," he mumbled under his breath, stopping dead in his tracks. Clary rammed into his back, not yet noticing the terrible situation they were in. "Hey, what's the hold up-" his name died on her lips, which he was thankful for, as she noticed the numerous troopers pointing loaded guns at her.

"Uh..." she raised her hands up as if to surrender, "hey guys, what's happening? Don't mind us, we were just leaving." Ezra nudged Clary's side, as if to say 'shut up.' She sent him a worried look, before turning back to the sea of troopers.

"Put you hands behind your backs and get to you knees, slowly." The storm trooper closest to them ordered, his voice severe. The both obeyed, afraid of what would happen in they didn't, Ezra's mind going into overdrive as world continued to turn and leave him there, dazed.

"Good move, so, you two think it's a free for all? Well, it's not, get them back to their cells boys, and alert agent Kallus of this, he'll want to know we caught the escapees." Four storm troopers instantly split away from the others at their boss' orders, doing as he asked, they bound both Ezra and Clary's hands behind their backs.

"Now, get them out of my sight." "Wait!" Clary managed to tear herself away from the two troopers restraining her, catching the lead trooper's attention before he'd moved to leave. "I have something to say first," she shot Ezra a quick look, not one of worry, or fear, or guilt, but one of cunning and intelligence. A devilish smile suddenly broke out on her face, and as quick as lightening, she got her lightsaber out of its holster and activated it, pointing it directly at the trooper who was in charge's neck.

"Tell Kallus to go suck an egg," and with that said, she ran the trooper through with her lightsaber. He fell to the floor instantly with a resounding crash, dead. Ezra almost couldn't believe what he was seeing, she'd killed him, Clary had actually killed him.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to ponder what had just transpired, because in a mere second, Clary had managed to discard her handcuffs, and cut down the troopers restraining him as well, before flashing him a wicked grin as he undid the bindings on his hands.

"Help me," she shouted, before chaos erupted all around them. Blasters going off, shots whizzing past his ears, bucket heads everywhere trying to get a hold of him and knock him out. It was complete and utter mayhem, pandemonium even. The worst part, he was still in shock, so it took him a couple of seconds to recalibrate his brain and jump into action.

A trooper to his right managed to land a kick to his left side, but swiftly, Ezra turned around, pulled out his lightsaber, and swiped at the man's feet. The bucket head moved backwards, trying to avoid amputation, and that's when Ezra knocked him out with a clean punch, while he wasn't paying attention.

Next, he proceeded to trip the trooper to his left, then in one smooth motion, Ezra picked up the fallen blaster the bucket head had dropped and setting it to stun, he knocked the man out. Firing off more shots, Ezra aimed for as many troopers as he could, trying to carve a path he could escape through.

But unfortunately for him, with every one he shot, two more appeared, the wave was endless. And to make matters worse, he'd lost sight of Clary. She'd somehow magically disappeared, and now he had no idea where she was. Which sucked, because he could really use her help right about now.

Suddenly, the blaster in his hands ran out of ammo, upping his bad luck scale from a ten to a twenty. _'God damn it,'_ he internally swore. _'Guess it's time for a tactical retreat',_ but Hell did he seriously hate tactical retreats, it really hurt his pride.

Discarding the blaster he'd been using, he rolled up his sleeve and pulled out his slingshot, finishing off the last of the bucket heads that were to his right. With a path cleared, Ezra turned and ran, though every fiber in his body screamed at him to turn back around and continue to fight back.

But he knew that if he did, he wouldn't survive, and as he'd learned growing up, survival was top priority, or else who'd save his friends? Wherever they were, they were probably in a situation worse than this, in fact, what he was doing now, was probably a cakewalk compared to what he friends were most likely enduring.

Or what Clary could be enduring right about now, in whatever situation she'd gotten herself in. Oh damn it, he was worried about her, he'd only known her for a short while and he was _already_ worried about her. _'Let's face it, you too naïve, too trustworthy, being with your friends for so long has turned you into more of a fool. You can't just trust someone you just met, trust needs to be earned, and she hasn't earned it yet. Stay sharp, don't let your feelings dictate the way you act.'_

_'I got it,_' Ezra sped up his pace, eyes searching for the transport landing dock, not finding it anywhere. _'Listen to my brain, not my heart.' 'Unless you want to die in a gutter somewhere,'_ the voice added sadistically._ 'You know, because the guy selling $10 gold watches in a grimy, dirty alley seemed so nice. Though, he got a tad defensive when you stupidly questioned him on it.'_

_'Okay, okay. Stop patronizing me, I don't need two people bashing on me.' 'Actually, your pretty much just going one-on-one with yourself kid. Remember, I'm not real, just a voice your subconscious created so you'd feel less alone.' 'Gee, thanks for reminding me I'm nuts, I already knew that.' 'Your welcome, by the way, take the next left, a group of troopers in about to cut you off.'_

Ezra emitted a startled yelp as he nearly ran into a pole, having been so caught up in his own thoughts, he hadn't noticed the obstacle in his way. _'Left...got it.' _He veered off course, taking the left turn and ending up near the detention center, where they kept criminals being sentenced to death.

Where he might've ended up, had he not planned a way out. Where Clary might've one day ended up, had he not broken her out. The Empire wasn't very sympathetic and forgiving when it came to Capital crimes, they killed whoever they had jurisdiction to kill. For them, it wasn't so much about justice, as it was about control. Power.

If hearing about the fall of Order 66 had taught him anything, it's that the Empire would do anything to keep the galaxy in line. And if a couple thousand people die in the crossfire? Who cares, it's collateral damage, they'd sweep it under the rug and call it _'a necessary action.'_ Necessary his ass, they enjoyed their jobs too much, they got a kick out of ruining lives. They were destroying the same galaxy they claimed to be protecting, however in his opinion, the galaxy was better off on it's own.

Besides, if they're only shot to maintain peace in the world, was to follow the orders of the Empire, then the galaxy was already damned. You couldn't have peace if you were willing to go to war over it, it just doesn't work.

_'You know what else doesn't work? Standing there with your feet rooted to the ground like an incompetent bonehead with a lost expression on your face, and then expecting to live. No running, no living, it's that simple. RUN.'_ Ezra shook his head, re-focusing on the here and now. _'Right, sorry.'_

Commanding his feet to start moving again, Ezra caught a glimpse of a dozen or so troopers running towards the main entrance building, completely in the other direction of the detention center, where he was.

_'Guess that left turn really fooled them,' 'of course it did, those bucket heads are lacking oxygen to their brains, haven't you noticed? They are complete morons to not have anticipated your move ahead of time. They should really play chess more, learn some thinking skills.'_

Ezra's breath suddenly caught in his throat, _'wait? Did you just say chess? What-?' 'Hey, look! Up on the roof of cell block B, isn't that a head of blonde hair?'_

Ezra instantly forgot what he was going to think next, his eyes zeroing in on the roof of the nearby structure. And sure enough, he could clearly see a head of dazzling platinum blonde hair. Finally, God, when he caught up with her, he was going to slap her-in his head at least.

He almost called out to her, remembering at the last second that there were troopers nearby. So instead of yelling. Ezra reached out with the Force, putting everything he had into sending her a message. _'Turn around.'_

The figure on the rooftop suddenly stopped, spinning around on her heel, Clary's golden-blue-green eyes found his cerulean ones, her relief flooding the Force like a tidal wave. And that's when he realised, she'd been worried about him, she'd been looking for him too.

Jumping down quickly from the ledge of the roof like a gymnast, Clary ran over to him in an almost dead sprint, throwing her arms around his neck tightly like they were lifelong friends. "Thank God your okay, I was so freakin' scared. But seriously, if you ever do that to me again, I will personally kill you then not attend you funeral."

Ezra mocked a hurt look, "hey! _Your_ the one who disappeared on _me_, I should be mad at you." Clary tilted her head to the side, as if in thought. "Ah, let's just both be mad at each other and stop playing the blame game. Now, getting back to all things critical. I saw the transport dock while I was up on the roof, if we keep heading straight, we should get there in two seconds flat-if we run."

Ezra smiled, "then let's run. Fast, because I really hate this place." "Ditto," she grabbed his hand, pulling him along behind her as they both started to hurtle in the direction of the vessel dock. Her hand was holding his so tightly, Ezra thought his wrist might break. Was she trying to cut off circulation to his hand? Or was she just scared to lose sight of him again?

"God, speed up kid, I'm practically dragging you," Clary's voice cut through his thoughts. Making him realise that he'd been lagging behind, too far into his own head once again to even notice that he'd stopped running. She'd been pulling him along, like a toddler.

"Sorry," he replied, in a tone that was in no way apologetic. "I'll speed up," "good." She finally let go of his arm, his wrist hurting where she'd been squeezing it. "Because the dock's right there, and an unattended fighter's conveniently right next to it. Now, I say, we ignore the fact that it seems too much like a trap, and take our chances running to it."

If Ezra had been thinking any more cleary, he would've probably said no, told her how their chances taking the bait, and getting away with it weren't very good right now. But his head just wasn't in the right place, he really could not focus on anything. His eyesight was kinda blurry, and the world kept going in and out of focus.

He only prayed he wouldn't pass out, especially not now of all times. Was the dizziness and lack of focus a consequence of not eating in while or not sleeping in a while? Because he'd been doing both, for a pretty long time now.

Well, whichever one it was, it was also impairing his judgement. Because at that moment, he agreed with her. Went along with it even though every fiber in his body told him that playing it safe and not walking head first into a sure-fire trap was the way to stay alive.

But Hell, he was losing vision very fast, and his ears were starting to malfunction too, so he did the easy thing and just went along with it.

And surprisingly enough, it wasn't a trap. No, there were no troopers jumping out at them the second they walked out in the open._ 'So, they're either really stupid, or...well...just plain incompetent. That's it. Pretty much just one answer for why they'd let us walk away like this. They're downright fools.'_

But, hey, there was no way in God's name he was gonna look a gift-horse in the mouth. So, climbing into the fighter beside Clary, Ezra popped open the wire box and connected them together. The engine roared to life a moment later, and with a great deal of trouble, Ezra managed to fly them out of the prison's courtyard and away from base 49 entirely without so much as one blaster going off at them.

If he'd been any more alert, alarm bells would've been going off, telling him, _'that was too easy.'_ But since he was basically half-asleep, he didn't question it. _Again_, he didn't question the easiness and convenience of the situation _again_. And that was a huge mistake.

"So," Clary piped up next to him, voice breathless from both excitement at finally being free and exhaustion from the stunt they'd just pulled. "What do you say we...go off the radar for a while? Huh? Incognito, M.I.A, lay low so to speak...nod your head if you understand." Ezra rolled his eyes at her tone, nodding his head only to amuse her.

"Good, and I have the perfect place in mind where we can go, but first, we'll have to ditch the TIE." Ezra sighed, "I figured." "Then, once that's done, you can show me that fancy ship you were going on about." She smiled at him, "I can't wait to see this _Ghost. _It's been so long since I've piloted anything, but don't worry, I'm very good."

Ezra felt a smile identical to the one Clary was wearing right now creep onto his face, "I think Hera, my friend, she'd throw a fit if she knew either of us were to fly her ship."

"Oh, and while we're on the topic of your friends," Clary switched subject seamlessly, her smile broadening even more. "I think I already have an idea of where they might be."


End file.
